Who Are You ?
by gladrags2012
Summary: Frank's MI High team are mixed with his old team to investigate the mysterious internet company, Perfect Match. Why does it seem like every illegal organisation in the world is calling on their services ? The team try to find out.
1. Chapter 1

**This story uses characters from Frank London's two teams of MI High spies. I don't own any of them. I'm just borrowing as usual. I have also added one of my own characters from previous stories, called Ilya Gordovsky. He came from Spy School originally.**

Aneisha sat in the reception area outside Stella's office. Each of the team had been called in one at a time. They hadn't been told why they were coming to MI9 HQ and they'd all been nervous. Tom had been called in first, followed some time later by Dan and Keri. Now Aneisha was waiting her turn and she was seriously stressed. Frank had refused to tell them what it was all about. Not even Tom could winkle any information out of the computers beforehand.

Aneisha rubbed her sweaty hands on her black trousers and looked up in interest as two young men came into the room. They were both blond and good looking, but a few years older than the MI High agents. They were speaking to one another in what sounded like Russian. They stopped at the receptionist's desk and the first one spoke in fluent English. "Hello ! We've been told to report to Chief Agent Knight," he said. The receptionist asked them to wait as Stella was running a little late. The agent glanced at his watch and nodded. The two young men sat down next to Aneisha, smiling at her politely.

Aneisha smiled back. "You speak really good English," she said, trying to make conversation.

The young man smiled at her in amusement. "Thanks ! I've spent a lifetime perfecting it," he said with a grin.

"Oh ! You're British," said Aneisha, feeling really stupid.

"Yes, but I wouldn't ever pass up a compliment," said the young man. "I'm Oscar. This is Ilya," he said, waving to his colleague.

"I also speak very good English," said Ilya, but with a strong accent.

Aneisha caught the twinkle in his eye and quickly forgot her embarrassment. "Aneisha," she said, holding out her hand. Oscar and Ilya shook her hand.

"You are MI High yes ?" asked Ilya. Aneisha nodded. "And very nervous yes ?" he said. Again Aneisha nodded. "So, what is the worst thing that can happen ?" asked Ilya.

Aneisha frowned. Oscar looked at Ilya and rolled his eyes. "Well, that really helped Ilya !" he protested.

Finally Stella's door opened. "Agents Jones, Cole and Gordovsky please ?" called out an agent. Aneisha followed the two older agents into Stella's office. Stella waved them into three chairs in front of her desk. "We have a mission for you," Stella began. "It's a complex mission which will involve multiple agents. It will include all of the current MI High team, plus some additional agents."

"Will Rose, erm, Agent Gupta be joining us ?" asked Ilya innocently. Oscar elbowed Ilya in the ribs, and Aneisha smiled to herself. Someone obviously liked Rose, whoever she was. Stella obviously picked up on the same and Aneisha knew her well enough now to realise she was struggling to hide a smile. Stella wasn't actually as straight laced as the appearance she created for work.

"As it happens, Agent Gupta will be involved with the mission, but with another aspect so you should have no contact," said Stella. "There will be several teams working together on the mission, but separately from one another. We aim to keep contact to a minimum to avoid intelligence leakage. The less you know about one another, the better," explained Stella.

"The three of you are going into deep cover," explained Stella, waving to the other agent in her room. The room darkened and a large screen came on, showing a picture of an old brick-built industrial building. "This is The Mill," said Stella. "It is the headquarters for a global internet business called 'Perfect Match'. We have reason to believe that Perfect Match is associated with international crime interests."

"What are they doing ?" asked Oscar.

"That's the first problem," said Stella. "We don't know. Various agencies have been gathering intelligence on the different criminal networks across the globe and the name of this company keeps on coming up. We have to find out what they are doing."

"You said they were an internet company," said Aneisha curiously.

"That's right," said Stella.

"Well, wouldn't it be easier for someone like Tom to work inside the company ?" asked Aneisha.

"Or Rose ?" asked Oscar.

"We have already tried to infiltrate the company with technical experts, but it's proven rather difficult to get them in," said Stella frowning. "We've decided to go for a different approach. They have been advertising for foreign language experts and for people with performance arts skills. I want you three to attempt to join the company, as undercover agents."

"I can see why they might want foreign language experts, but why would they want someone with drama skills ?" asked Aneisha.

"I have no idea, and I want you to find out," said Stella. "Agent Turillo here will give you your briefing. Good day agents," said Stella, returning to her desk and looking through some paperwork. Oscar, Ilya and Aneisha looked at one another with raised eyebrows, then stood and followed Agent Turillo out of the room.

"What do you think ?" Ilya muttered to Oscar and Aneisha. "Criminal dating agency ?" he asked, waving his eyebrows.

Aneisha had to stifle a giggle and even Oscar had to smile. "Yeah Ilya. Master Criminal would like to meet same for country walks and quiet nights in. No sense of humour," said Oscar drily.

"My kind of guy," sighed Aneisha. This made both Oscar and Ilya laugh out loud. Agent Turillo looked round at them suspiciously and they all immediately put on serious faces. They managed to keep this up all the way to Identity Section.

The Identity Section of MI9 HQ was where all agents went to be assigned their fake identity for a mission. They would be supplied with their new names and whatever fake documentation was needed to justify it. There was a costume and makeup department who would alter appearances to disguise the agents or make them blend into their new surroundings. Aneisha loved Identity Section.

As they went in, someone passed them and stared disbelievingly at Aneisha. "Hey Neish ! Don't bother saying hello then !" complained Dan's voice. Aneisha literally jumped in shock, putting her hand to her mouth.

"Ohmygod ! Dan ! I didn't recognise you !" Aneisha squealed. Now she looked at him properly it was obvious. He still had the high cheekbones obviously, but his hair was dark brown as were his eyebrows. His hair had been cut in a totally different style and his eyes were now brown.

"Well at least it works !" said an amused voice. Aneisha looked around for Keri. She could hear her, but she couldn't see her. Then it finally dawned on Aneisha. "Agent Turillo ? Really ?" she squealed.

Keri stood with her hands on her hips. "Stella and Frank were placing bets on how long it would take you to notice," she said, grinning. "Good disguise huh ?" she asked, doing a little turn on the spot like a fashion model. "I don't go a bundle on the clothes, but hey ! I didn't get to choose," she added. Keri also had very dark hair, done up in a tight bun. "We've got to go," said Keri. "Might see you guys later."

Keri and Dan waved a goodbye and left the room. "Friends of yours ?" asked Oscar.

"Dan and Keri from my team," said Aneisha. "Oh, maybe I shouldn't have told you that," she added. "It's a bit confusing."

"We won't tell," Oscar assured her. "Come on. Let's see who we're going to be !" he said, sounding excited. Aneisha guessed that Oscar liked Dr. Drama as much as she did.


	2. Chapter 2

**The teams have been divided up to investigate Perfect Match. Getting into character.**

"_We won't tell," Oscar assured her. "Come on. Let's see who we're going to be !" he said, sounding excited. Aneisha guessed that Oscar liked Dr. Drama as much as she did._

Tom was led through the Observation department of MI9 HQ and taken to a booth in the corner of a room filled with people working on multiple workstations. A young woman with light brown skin and long, black, silky hair was staring at a computer screen at one end of the double desk. "Agent Gupta ?" said Tom's guide.

"Hm ?" said Agent Gupta in a distracted tone of voice, before finally looking up. "Oh, Hi ! You're Tom aren't you ?" she asked. Tom nodded nervously. "Great. I've seen some of your work. It's good," said Agent Gupta. She held out her hand. "Sorry, I'm being rude aren't I. I'm Rose. How do you do ?" she said with a friendly smile. Tom relaxed and shook her hand.

"I'll leave you to get on with it then," said Tom's guide. "Agent Gupta will brief you," he explained.

Rose pointed to the empty chair next to hers. "Okay, before we start I'd better explain a few things. I worked in MI High for Frank. We were the team before yours," said Rose. This made Tom's face light up and she smiled back at him. "Yeah, it's a rush isn't it ?" she said, grinning.

"I really enjoy it," Tom said. "At least, I enjoy the techie bits, not the dangerous bits. I don't like them much. That and the running. I mean, why all the running ?" he demanded.

Rose laughed. "Frank said you were fond of a biscuit," she said. "Well, you and I are in charge of getting into the virtual world of Perfect Match. We will be supporting the others with useful information, hopefully, and any support they need to maintain their covers."

"Okay, how's that going ?" asked Tom.

Rose grunted. "Not that well. Their firewalls are really annoying !" she hissed angrily. "I'm starting to get seriously hacked off."

"Well, speaking of hacking," said Tom, wriggling his fingers. "Let's get to it !" he said, gleefully.

Elsewhere in MI9 HQ, Dan and Keri came out of a briefing room feeling dizzy with the quantity of information which had just been thrown at them. "I think I need another week to revise," complained Dan.

"You and me both," sighed Keri. "So, Zac, where do we start ?" she asked.

"Well, Tanya, I think we need to go to the armoury, don't you ?" asked Dan, taking his lead from Keri. The more practice he had at using their cover names, the better his chances of remembering them when he was stressed, which if he was honest, was likely to be his whole time undercover. It wasn't that he hated dressing up in strange costumes and the weird hair and the other physical stuff. It was more that he hated lying. He didn't like pretending he was someone that he wasn't.

"So," said Keri, frowning with concentration, "I am Tania Zucchero, daughter of the deceased mobster Guiseppe Zucchero and sister of Zac Zucchero. We are the joint heads of the family extortion and arms business. We have been in hiding for the last two years because there is an international warrant for our extradition to Italy to face racketeering charges. In reality we have been locked up secretly in an MI9 prison for the last month until we are extradited. We speak no Italian because we were brought up in the UK and raised by our Aunt Sonia in order to avoid the risk of kidnapping in Italy. Have I got it all ?" she asked Dan finally.

"I think so. I'm Zac Zucchero. Stupid name," added Dan. "I am the brother of Tania Zucchero and only son of Italian mobster Guiseppe Zucchero. We never met our father, but were brought up to take up the reins of his organisation on his death. We have been running his illegal businesses, and some legitimate ones, for the last two years. We move constantly to avoid detection and have few friends or family. Perfect really," said Dan.

"Armoury," announced Keri. "I wouldn't mind another pair of laser lashes. They were cool !" said Keri with a sly look at Dan. "I can't believe they don't make them standard issue," she teased.

Dan took a deep breath and looked at Keri. He knew she was winding him up, but it still worked. "Just two words Keri. No and Way !" he said, swiping his identity card over the door security panel. The door softly opened by itself and they both stepped through. Inside was a narrow entrance hallway wide enough for one person at a time. As they walked through Keri noticed a soft wave of red light running over her. There were various buzzes and beeps as they passed through. At the end of the brightly lit corridor another door softly opened and they walked through into a reception area.

Two agents were sitting in front of monitors behind a wide desk. A woman glanced up and smiled slightly at them. "Agents Morgan and Summers ?" she said. They both nodded. "Armoury room 2 please," she said, pointing to a corridor leading off to one side. They turned into the corridor and knocked on the door marked with a large number 2. The door opened and they stepped through.

"Agents Morgan and Summers," said a man's voice.

Keri grinned. "Frank ! What are you doing here ?" she asked.

Frank looked up from a table with different items laid out on it and smiled at them both. His expression turned slightly quizzical. "You do look different," he said after a slight pause.

"That's the whole idea isn't it ?" asked Dan.

Frank cleared his throat. "Yes, of course it is. Well, it's just strange, that's all," he said, looking a little embarrassed.

"Frank, how long have you been a spy for ?" asked Keri.

"Oh, I know !" Frank protested. "It makes you look so much older, that's all. You all get older and then, well, you know …." he trailed off quietly, sounding embarrassed.

"We leave ?" suggested Dan gently.

"Yes. That's it," said Frank, scratching his ear.

"Yeah, well, we're going to be busy for a bit yet Frank," said Dan.

"Yes, that's right. Okay, let's get to business," said Frank, clapping his hands together. "This is the equipment you are going to be taking on your assignment. I'll give you a run through of how it all works, as usual," he said briskly.

Frank started happily running through the capabilities of each of the items on the table. Dan watched his team leader, understanding a little bit more about what it must be like to run the MI High team. Frank probably had to look after his team more than the leader of an adult unit would which meant he probably got closer to them. Unlike the adult units though, they probably only stayed together for two or maybe three years before the agents became too old to remain undercover in a school. Thinking about it, Dan wondered if he would be able to stay beyond this academic year. He barely looked like a teenager any more. He wouldn't be able to hang around for much longer. Tom and Aneisha could probably get away with it for another couple of years, and Keri maybe for another year. The realisation hit Dan hard that very soon he would have to leave his friends behind. Who knew if MI9 would want to keep him on as an adult agent. There were probably more tests to take. There always seemed to be more tests to take. He'd taken loads this year !

"Dan ! Dan, have you been listening ?" demanded Frank, sounding exasperated.

"Oh, sorry Frank. You made me think about being in MI High. I'm going to be too old soon aren't I ?" asked Dan sadly.

Frank sighed. "Yes Dan, you probably won't be able to stay beyond this academic year. I should probably have spoken to you about it before, but I was hoping for a better time," he said apologetically.

"Yes, sorry Frank. I'm back on track now. Would you mind repeating about the scanner please ?" asked Dan dragging himself back to the moment. This was no time to be moping about the future. If he didn't get this right, he and Keri might not have a future.


	3. Chapter 3

**The teams have been divided up to investigate Perfect Match. Getting in, part 2.**

_Frank sighed. "Yes Dan, you probably won't be able to stay beyond this academic year. I should probably have spoken to you about it before, but I was hoping for a better time," he said apologetically._

"_Yes, sorry Frank. I'm back on track now. Would you mind repeating about the scanner please ?" asked Dan dragging himself back to the moment. This was no time to be moping about the future. If he didn't get this right, he and Keri might not have a future._

Aneisha arrived at The Mill wearing a sharp business suit and carrying a file full of faked pictures of her acting experiences. She was Molly Marsters, out of work actress. The job advert had been for a drama coach. Aneisha was applying for the post. She looked around expecting to see lots of people queuing up for the interviews. The street was deserted.

She walked up to a glass door and went in. She smiled at the receptionist and said, "Hello, I'm here for an interview. My name is Molly Marsters."

The woman smiled at her and typed on a keyboard on her desk. "Yes, Miss Marsters. Someone will be down to collect you shortly. Why don't you take a seat ?" the woman invited. Aneisha did as she was told and waited. She felt a little nervous, but then that was OK because she would probably look nervous if she was going for a job interview. The outside door opened and Oscar came in. His hair was slicked down with gel and he was wearing a blue suit.

"Hi," said Oscar. "James Oldham. I'm here for the interpreter interview," he said to the receptionist. He too was pointed to the seating area. Oscar nodded politely to Aneisha who nodded back.

Finally, an inner door opened and a very tall man came through. "Miss Marsters ?" he asked.

Aneisha stood up and walked towards him smiling confidently. "Hello, I'm Molly Marsters," she said. "How do you do ?" she asked politely. As she got closer, she realised just how tall this man was. The hair on the top of his head actually brushed the top of the door frame. Aneisha found herself craning her neck to look the man in the eye.

"Very nice to meet you," said the man. "Won't you come through," he invited. Aneisha followed him through various corridors.

"I thought there would be more candidates," said Aneisha, trying to break the silence.

"Yes, well so did I," said the man sounding puzzled. "We seem to have had a lot of people drop out at the last minute. Very odd," he added.

"Must be the poison I put in their coffee," said Aneisha. The man turned round and stared at her doubtfully. "Only joking," said Aneisha with a smile. Secretly she wondered what MI9 had done to get rid of all the other candidates. She was starting to get a serious crick in her neck from craning up to see the man. Finally he took her to a meeting room where he and two other people asked her questions about her experience and asked her to carry out some mock coaching sessions. They were interested in her teaching people to take on acting roles. She ended up enjoying the session and by the end, the people interviewing looked happy too. She still had a smile on her face as she left the building.

"That went pretty well," said a voice in her ear.

"Thanks Tom," Aneisha said. "It was fun. I don't often get to do much acting," she said. "Let's hope it was enough to get the job.

Later that afternoon Aneisha met up with Oscar. "What did you have to do ?" Aneisha asked him.

"Oh, they tried me out interpreting for one of their language experts. It was pretty easy," said Oscar sounding relaxed. "I could speak all the languages they asked me to," he said casually.

"How many languages do you speak ?" Aneisha asked him.

"Sixteen," said Oscar. "I try to pick up one each year," he said, glancing round as Ilya came into the room.

"You will catch a fly in there," said Ilya to Aneisha, who was so shocked at what Oscar had told her, she was still sitting with her mouth open.

"Sixteen !" said Aneisha, still shocked.

"He is showing off again isn't he ?" asked Ilya. "He only spoke fourteen when he worked for MI High," he said.

"Fourteen !" squealed Aneisha. "That's not natural," she complained. "How many do you speak ?" she asked Ilya.

"I speak only twelve, but I have great natural charm," he said with a big smile. This made Aneisha and Oscar laugh out loud.

"What if they only want one of you ?" Aneisha asked them seriously.

"Even one is better than none," pointed out Ilya. "And also, we do not share so many languages. Luckily we do share Russian and English."

Aneisha's phone rang. "Hello. Yes ? Oh, that's great. I could do with the work. Yes, thanks very much. Tomorrow ? Yes no problem. I'll be there," she said, closing the call with a smile and raising both fists above her head. "I'm in !" she said. Oscar and Ilya congratulated her.

Then it was Ilya's turn. "Yes it is Petrov," he said with a much stronger accent than was usual. "Yes, that is very good. I am very pleased. Thankyou. Yes, tomorrow," he said, closing his call. "I also am in," he said triumphantly. Ilya and Aneisha turned and stared at Oscar.

"Hey ! Patience is a virtue you know !" he complained. He was looking quite worried by the time he finally got his call even though it was only ten minutes later. "Yes, this is James," said Oscar. "Yes ? Oh that is great. Yes, my family have been on at me to spend some time back at home for a while," he said. "Tomorrow ? Yes that's fine. Thanks again," he said before closing the call and giving a relieved smile to the other two. "We're all in," he said. They high fived one another.

"Neish ! Brilliant !" called a familiar voice. Aneisha turned to see Tom coming towards her. He gave her a big hug and said, "Well done !"

"Do we also get a hug ?" asked Ilya innocently.

Tom looked at him dubiously. "No," he said.

"This is Oscar and Ilya. Oscar used to work for Frank and MI High before us," she told him. "He speaks sixteen languages," she told him. "Ilya speaks twelve !" she added.

"Cool !" said Tom, sounding impressed. "I'm Tom Tupper, technical genius," he said grinning.

"And very humble !" said Aneisha, rolling her eyes.

"No point in false modesty," said Tom smugly. Oscar and Ilya roared with laughter.

"I think we will get on just fine !" laughed Oscar, putting an arm around Tom's shoulder. "Got any gadgets for us ?" he asked.

"Oh, have I ? We need you to try and sneak some surveillance gear into Perfect Match for us," said Tom. "Come on. We'll show you the stuff. Rose is waiting."

"Rose is here ?" asked Ilya, clearly perking up.

Laughing happily they trooped off to the technical section where Ilya flirted shamelessly with Rose while Tom loaded them all up with various gadgets for spying on the operations of Perfect Match. "All you have to do is get them in," said Tom.

"Wait Tom. If they're a criminal outfit, they may have anti-surveillance measures operating," warned Rose, extricating herself from Ilya for a minute. "You should go in with these first," she said, giving them each a small, credit-card sized device. "This should be undetectable, but it will record the presence of anti-spy facilities. You should use this before we start placing any listening gear. You could set off alarms otherwise and then you will be out before you can really get in," she added. "Take these in on your first day. Move around as much as you can. We will read off the devices at the end of the day and check for anti-spy protection."

"Thanks Rose," said Oscar, kissing her lightly on the cheek. "Thanks too Tom. We'll see you later tomorrow then ?" he said. "Hopefully we'll have some information for you."


	4. Chapter 4

**The teams have been divided up to investigate Perfect Match. Dirty deals done.**

"_Take these in on your first day. Move around as much as you can. We will read off the devices at the end of the day and check for anti-spy protection."_

"_Thanks Rose," said Oscar, kissing her lightly on the cheek. "Thanks too Tom. We'll see you later tomorrow then ?" he said. "Hopefully we'll have some information for you."_

Dan and Keri walked into their new apartment. They were each carrying a small suitcase and a backpack. The apartment was furnished and had a number of secret security facilities. It was supposed to be a high specification secure apartment. Unknown to the company who sold the apartment, it was even higher specification since it had been seriously upgraded by MI9. It was filled with bugging gear and intruder detection and protection features. "We'd better not get locked out," muttered Keri. "I don't think we'll be able to break in."

Dan snorted. "Let's dump the stuff. We need to go check on business," he said. They each took out a tablet device and started running through the messages. There was a backlog of messages which MI9 had allowed to build up for a week before the mission began. "I'll try this one," said Dan, after reading one of the messages. He pulled out a phone. "I hope MI9 put the right number on this," he muttered.

"They wouldn't make a silly mistake like that, after all the effort they've put in," said Keri, still running through her messages.

"Hi Marco ! It's Zac," said Dan when his call was answered. "Yeah I know. MI9 were on to us. We had to lay low for a couple of weeks," he said. "I haven't had time to go through all the messages. What have you got for us ?" he asked. "Hm ? Alright, it sounds good. Is it legit ?" he asked. "Yeah, we'll meet them," he said. "6pm this evening ? It's not too public is it ? Okay, I'll see them there. No, you don't need to come," he said, closing the call.

"This guy called Marco has arranged for us to meet some drugs dealers this afternoon. Apparently we have a regular trade with some Moroccans shipping hard drugs into the UK," he explained to Keri.

"We get to meet all the best people," said Keri absentmindedly. "I've got plenty of stuff, but nothing mentions Perfect Match."

"We'd better try getting into the characters and hopefully something will come up," suggested Dan. "I don't like these people already," he said, unconsciously rubbing his hands on his trousers.

Keri watched him with amusement. Dan was not very good at hiding his feelings. "Makes you feel kind of grubby does it ?" she commented. He half smiled and nodded.

Later that afternoon they arrived on a motorbike outside a deserted looking warehouse in a run-down area by the river. As Keri dismounted from the pillion passenger seat Dan couldn't help admiring how she looked in biker leathers. Hers were dark red and when she took the helmet off and shook down her long, now black, hair, she looked like she had stepped out of a television advert. She was wearing a small backpack which contained a large amount of money in used banknotes. Dan pulled another backpack out of a pannier on the side of the bike and pulled it on. "Let's take the helmets with us," suggested Dan. "They're bullet proof." Keri nodded and they walked side by side into the building in front of them.

"Good luck Dan and Keri," said Tom's voice in their ears. Keri smiled in acknowledgement, even though she knew that Tom couldn't see her. Somehow knowing that he was listening made her feel more confident. There was backup available if they desperately needed it, but since it would probably blow the whole operation, they could only call on it as a last resort.

When they entered the warehouse they were met by a small group of men. They were wearing dark clothes and dark glasses and they all had beards. It was hard to work out where they came from. Keri guessed they must be North African. Two men had their hands in their jacket pockets and she could clearly see the shape of guns inside. Keri took a deep breath. This was no time to get scared. They had to look confident. Dan muttered, "I think you'd better let me deal with this." Keri nodded. She was more than happy for Dan to deal with this. She did not like the way some of the men were eyeing her up.

"You got the stuff ?" asked Dan.

"You got the money ?" asked one of the drugs dealers.

"You lay the drugs out, and we'll lay the money out," said Dan.

One of the men from the group walked forward with a large holdall and opened it up. Inside were packets of white powder. Keri took off her backpack and opened it up next to the holdall, so that packs of banknotes could be clearly seen. Dan stepped up to the holdall and used a scanner to run a test on the powder in the packet. One of the men stepped up to the holdall and started counting the money. Keri stood as lookout, watching all around them.

"This isn't as pure as usual," commented Dan. "Are you trying to con us ?" he asked, giving the leader of the group a hard stare.

"It is A grade. If you want it, you pay. If you don't, we take it away," snarled the boss.

Dan looked at Keri and showed her the reading on his scan device. "What do you think ? Is it good enough ?" he asked her.

Keri looked at the reading and shrugged. "Who cares if anyone dies. If they're stupid enough to take the stuff then they deserve what they get," she sneered.

"I don't like losing customers," said Dan coldly. "It's bad for business."

"It's good enough," snarled the boss. "What's to stop me just taking your money and killing you both," he shouted, standing up and pulling a gun out of his pocket, as did all his men.

"This," sighed Dan, tossing a small spherical metal device at the group of men. It gave off a strange tweeting noise and the men all froze in position, going glassy eyed.

"Leave the money. We'll take the drugs," said Dan. "Come on. It only lasts for five minutes," he said to Keri. Keri quickly emptied the money out of her backpack on to the ground while Dan zipped up the holdall and hefted it over his shoulder.

They both ran to the motorcycle, putting on their helmets. They balanced the holdall between them on the bike and Dan drove them off as quickly as he could amongst the debris surrounding the abandoned warehouse.

Meanwhile, back at the warehouse, the dazed group of drug smugglers started to move about. "What happened ?" one asked another in Arabic.

"The money ! Get the money !" ordered the boss, finally coming to his senses. They scrabbled on the ground to collect up the money and then disappeared into the fading light.

Once they had all left the building a figure stepped out of the shadows at the side of the building. He pulled out a phone. "Si ! E Marco," he said into his phone. "They got the drugs, but something is wrong," he said frowning. "He told me not to come. I wanted to find out why. I will get back to you," he added, closing the call before melting back into the darkness.

Dan drove them back to the underground car park beneath their apartment. They locked the bike and headed upstairs. Sitting outside their door was a large carton. Keri smiled. "We have post !" she said brightly.

"Hope it's what you need," said Tom's voice in their earpieces.

The carried everything inside and laid it out on the dining table. Inside the carton was a variety of different sized boxes and gifts. They spent the next couple of hours cutting open teddy bears and slitting the linings of bags so they could insert the packets of drugs into them. Then they resealed the items with glue and packaged them up into individual parcels. Each was given a different address which Keri printed off from her tablet. "Never thought I'd be a drug dealer," she said bitterly. "This sucks !"

"I know. Hopefully it's only this once though," said Dan. He paused while sticking on the last label. "How do we pass off turning up at the courier company with twenty different packages ?" he asked.

"You're selling stuff on ebay," said Tom's voice.

"Oh yeah. Good one," said Dan. "Right that's it. I'm wrecked. Let's get some sleep," he said.

"Aw, you and Keri have a nice night together," said Tom cheerfully.

"Very funny Tom. Get stuffed !" said Dan.

Keri grinned. "Separate rooms. Single beds Tom," said Keri. "Goodnight !" she said, pulling out her earpiece. Dan did the same.

"He's getting insufferable !" Dan complained.

"What do you mean, he's getting insufferable ?" asked Keri. "He always was ! I am so giving him grief over Aneisha at the next opportunity !" She rubbed her hands on her trousers in the same way Dan had done earlier.

"Makes you feel sticky doesn't it ?" asked Dan with a grimace.

"Yeah. I'm just not the criminal type," agreed Keri. "I'm going to bed. It's going to be another lovely day of destroying people's lives tomorrow."


	5. Chapter 5

**The teams have been divided up to investigate Perfect Match. Sorry it's taking a while to update. I've been a bit busy lately. Thanks for the reviews. Always give a warm feeling. Someone complained that they had trouble following my jumps between different viewpoints in the story, so I have tried adding the line breaks. Hope that helps.**

"_Yeah. I'm just not the criminal type," agreed Keri. "I'm going to bed. It's going to be another lovely day of destroying people's lives tomorrow."_

Early the next day, Oscar, Ilya and Aneisha turned up for work at The Mill. They took care to arrive separately, but since they had all been told to report for duty at the same time, it was difficult to stay entirely separate from one another. Oscar nodded to Aneisha. After all, they had met briefly once before. She smiled back at him. It was good to know that she wasn't on her own. They were all wearing a listening device, but would not be able to transmit any signals of their own. Tom and Rose were trying to avoid their transmission being detected before they knew what anti-spy protection the company had in place. They also each had a scanning device to collect data about the building. All they had to do was embed themselves in their roles and move around the building as much as possible.

Aneisha was greeted by the very tall man who had interviewed her. "Ah, Miss Marsters. Lovely to see you again," said the man cheerily, holding out his hand.

Aneisha shook his hand. "Oh, call me Molly !" she said in as friendly a voice as possible. She needed to sound confident.

"Excellent, well, Molly let's get you started," said the tall man. "I'm Zoltan. I lead the Roleplay section at Perfect Match. We train our customers to take on, erm, new roles. It's part acting coaching and part confidence and life coaching really," he said. "We want our customers to feel confident in their new, erm, roles in, erm, life," he said hesitantly.

Aneisha kept up a happy and fairly vacant grin as Zoltan led her through the maze of corridors. In reality she was puzzled about why the man was taking such a roundabout route to explaining what the work was for. He seemed to be tripping over himself to avoid saying something. Her suspicions now aroused, Aneisha focussed tightly on what she was being told. "This is going to be your office," said Zoltan, showing her into a small room with several tables and chairs and some video screens. "We will provide you with a brief for each new customer. We will expect you to spend anything from a few hours, days or even weeks coaching them for their task. You can use any of the facilities within the building and the special Roleplay area in the basement. However, there must be no contact between the different clients and you are not to communicate with the other Roleplay coaches about your or their clients. The confidentiality of our clients is the most important feature of the work we do here. Hence you will need to schedule your activities with the other coaches so that the clients never meet one another. Is that understood ?" Zoltan asked her.

"Yes, of course," said Aneisha, completely baffled.

"Myself and another member of the senior team will assess the client's progress from time to time, using the video recordings which you will make and decide on whether or not they are ready for their, erm, task," Zoltan explained.

"Will someone show me how to use the video equipment ?" asked Aneisha.

"Yes, of course. One of our technical team will take you through it this morning. You will need to memorise your brief and then we have a new client for you this afternoon," said Zoltan. "Any questions ?" he asked.

"Um, where can I get lunch ?" asked Aneisha.

Zoltan smiled. "I'll show you now," he said. He took Aneisha through the building to a gap cut into a wall. Inside was what looked like a kitchen. Someone came to the serving area and asked what they would like. "A coffee, and Molly ?" asked Zoltan.

"Hot chocolate please," said Aneisha.

"You can come here at any time of day or night for whatever you need," said Zoltan. "If you have a client with you then you take them to one of the individual dining rooms which are located down the side of this corridor," he explained. "Look for a room marked as Vacant and make sure you change the sign to Engaged when you go in. We don't want our clients to mix during break times," he explained. "If you are only with a member of staff or on your own, you can go down to the end where there is a staff dining area. Any questions ?" he asked again.

"No. I think that covers it," said Aneisha, thanking the serving staff for her hot chocolate. They returned to her office and Zoltan handed her a thick file.

"This is your brief. You need to understand the basics by this afternoon. Your client starts at 2pm this afternoon. You need to be absolutely on top of it by tomorrow. Good luck !" said Zoltan shaking her hand again. "I'll see you later to see how you got on," he added, before walking out of the room.

Aneisha sat down at a table in the deserted room feeling rather alone. "Weird," she said to herself. Taking a deep breath she put down her drink and opened the file. "Better get started then," she muttered before settling down to read.

Oscar and Ilya were met by a woman called Aretha, and led to an area filled with interpreters booths. "You will both be here today," she said. "You've each got a couple of assignments. We want you to watch the scenarios being played out on the screen and you are to simultaneously translate the action into English. That is today's task," she explained. She showed them how the system operated, explaining how they could rewind to talk over any mistakes or hesitations they made during the translation.

"What are these translations use for ?" asked Ilya.

"Oh, you don't need to worry about that," said Aretha with a firm smile. "You are only required to provide the translation. Some of our clients are learning to play new roles and these scenarios provide training for them. Later you may be required to provide some language and voice coaching for clients who are trying to pick up new languages and pronunciations. It's an important part of their training for their, erm, new roles," she explained. She also showed them the catering area and explained about the private dining rooms for clients. "You won't have a great deal of direct contact with the clients to start with," said Aretha. "We'll see how you get on first," she said, with a smile. Oscar noticed how the smile didn't reach her eyes. He instantly didn't like the woman.

Oscar smiled his best charming smile. "Thankyou Aretha. That's been very helpful," he said. "I guess we'd better get started then," he said to Ilya. "I'm James," he said, holding out his hand.

"Petrov," said Ilya, shaking Oscar's hand vigorously. "I also wish to start."

Ilya and Oscar were looking around them all the time, trying to see as much activity in the building as they could, and trying to see where people were going to and from. When they returned to the translating room, many of the booths were now filled with people, sitting with headphones on and talking into microphones, in a variety of languages. Oscar and Ilya picked up scraps of speech as they passed the different booths. They couldn't be seen to be listening in, so it was hard to pick up much of what was being said.

"The deal is off !" announced one man as they walked past.

"I ordered the pink," complained a woman in Italian as they passed.

"This is not good enough. You will pay !" murmured another man. Ilya looked at Oscar and raised his eyebrows. Oscar nodded but said nothing. It would be nice to eavesdrop on all the conversations going on this this room, but they couldn't do it without being seen.

Oscar sat at his terminal and put on his headphones. The screen flickered into life and he found himself watching an image which seemed to have been filmed from a hidden camera of a woman going into a bank. "My name is Carmela Luigioni. I wish to open my safe deposit box," said the woman in Italian. Oscar began translating, keeping pace with the woman's speech. It took intense concentration to carry out the translation and he didn't have much brainpower left to think about what was happening. The bank official murmured something which Oscar couldn't hear. "Yes of course. I have my driving licence," said Oscar. "Do you need anything else ? Address ? Yes, I have a letter from the bank as a matter of fact. Here," he said. The woman then followed an official down into the basement of the bank where she opened a safety deposit box and removed some jewellery before relocking and returning the box.

He continued translating as the woman went shopping, met friends in a cafe and attended some kind of business networking event. She was shaking hands with everyone in the room and making small talk. The concentration required was draining and Oscar was relieved when the sequence finally ended and he sat back, taking off his headphones. He heard a buzz of conversation growing around him as people finished their work and sat back, stretching or rubbing their heads.

Ilya looked across from his booth and rolled his eyes. "Hard work yes ?" said Ilya. Oscar had to smile at the heavy accent Ilya was using. Ilya normally had very little accent in his English which was near perfect.

Oscar rubbed his eyes and nodded. "Coffee ?" he asked.

"Yes. I think everyone is going now," said Ilya. This was true and the room was slowly emptying of people. "Let us make some friends," suggested Ilya with a smile.

"Let's do that," agreed Oscar.

Later that day, Aneisha was taken to meet her client. "This is Marco," said Zoltan, introducing her to a tall dark-haired man. "He is going to be learning his new role of Zac Zucchero. Are you ready ?" he asked Aneisha.

"Yes. I'm ready. Hello, Zac," said Aneisha, holding out her hand to the unsmiling man in front of her. "Shall we get started ?" she asked.


	6. Chapter 6

**The teams have been divided up to investigate Perfect Match. Plain old spying. Not sure if the breaks are helping make it easier to follow. Let me know if it's rubbish and I'll take them out.**

_Later that day, Aneisha was taken to meet her client. "This is Marco," said Zoltan, introducing her to a tall dark-haired man. "He is going to be learning his new role of Zac Zucchero. Are you ready ?" he asked Aneisha._

"_Yes. I'm ready. Hello, Zac," said Aneisha, holding out her hand to the unsmiling man in front of her. "Shall we get started ?" she asked._

Frank and Stella sat at base going through all the information which had been collected through the day by the field agents. Stella had been reviewing the material collected by Aneisha and had finally reached the end of the recording. "Frank," she said slowly. "I think we might have a problem."

"What's wrong ?" asked Frank, looking up. He looked tired.

"Aneisha is being asked to coach someone who is taking on the role of Zac Zucchero," said Stella.

"It could be a coincidence," suggested Frank, not sounding very confident.

"You know as well as I do how unlikely that is to be a coincidence," said Stella. "Do you think we should do anything," she asked.

Frank chewed his bottom lip. "I'm not sure. We don't really know what's going on," he said.

"Aneisha is being asked to coach people in taking on new 'roles'," said Stella thoughtfully. "What if these people are training to impersonate somebody. What if this guy Marco is planning to replace Zac Zucchero ? Do you suppose that could be what Perfect Match is for ?" she went on.

Frank ran his hands over his face. "It's too early to pull out Dan and Keri. We just don't know enough," he said.

"Do you think we should tell Dan and Keri ?" asked Stella. "They could both be in danger. What if they're training someone to be Tanya Zucchero as well ? They couldn't expect to replace her brother without her noticing could they ?"

"But why ?" asked Frank.

"Taking over their criminal businesses without the bother of starting a turf war ?" suggested Stella.

"It would explain a lot," agreed Frank. He sat back in his chair. "OK, we need to monitor the situation carefully, but I don't want to alarm Dan and Keri just now. If this guy has just started his training, then he's not ready to replace Dan yet. I think we've got some time to play with. Warn Tom and Rose that they shouldn't let on to either Aneisha, Keri or Dan about what we've found out. It could affect their actions and give the game away. We need to know more about Perfect Match," he said. "We can't risk jeopardising the whole operation."

"All right," agreed Stella cautiously. "We'll go with that then."

Tom and Rose finished their analysis of the data collected by the field team. "You're right about the firewalls," Tom commented. "I've spent nearly all day trying to break in. I've used the MI9 standard tools, all my own stuff and I've even written some new tools and it hasn't made any difference !" he complained in frustration.

"We need to get the team to plant something on the computers for us," said Rose. "It's going to be the quickest route in. We'll be able to eavesdrop if we use a worm to work its way through the systems."

"Have you found anything apart from the transmission barrier ?" asked Tom. They had realised that the building had some kind of electrical screening which prevented any type of transmission from penetrating the walls. The staff couldn't use mobile phones and it wouldn't be possible for the field team to send out any signal without it being detected. "You were right about waiting until we had checked. The team would have been caught instantly if we'd loaded them up with the regular kit," commented Tom, scratching the back of his head. "Good call," he added.

Rose smiled at him. "Thanks," she said. It had been really enjoyable working with Tom. In spite of the age different there had been no need to explain anything she said during the day. He understood her instantly and liked a lot of the same sorts of things. Admittedly he was way more into gaming than she was, but she could see how it gave him a different set of skills to use. "We need to find a way for them to get a signal out to us," said Rose. "We can't expect them to be carrying memory sticks around with them. There's too much chance of them getting caught," she said.

"Why don't we try and piggy-back a signal on to the wiring," suggested Tom. "We could disguise it as noise."

"Brilliant !" agreed Rose. "I think I have just the algorithm. Come on, let's get it ready. They're going to need it tomorrow." Tom grinned back at her and they set to work putting together the software and hardware that the field team would need for the following day.

Oscar and Ilya had taken a long route home, starting separately and meeting up part way. "What do you think ?" Oscar asked his friend in Russian as they got off their third bus and started strolling down the road, back the way they had come. The two kept glancing into shop windows to check for the reflections of anyone who might be following them. It had become second nature to them both.

"I think they are spying on people," said Ilya. "I watched someone at a business meeting. They were being filmed secretly because the picture wasn't always so good," he added.

"I watched someone going into a bank and opening up a safe deposit box, but then there was film of them doing lots of social things and going to a business type of meeting as well," said Oscar. "Do you think they could be trying to steal from these people ?" he asked.

"It can't just be about stealing," said Ilya. "Why film someone at a business meeting ? It was a really boring meeting. They were talking about something called the HR Policy. I think it had something to do with firing people. It was hard to tell, because they never actually said so. I can't imagine what you could steal with that kind of information," he said with a sigh.

"Maybe we could see if the people in your films are the same people in my films," suggested Oscar.

"How can we do that ?" asked Ilya. Oscar shrugged. "Also, there are so many people in that room translating. How can we possibly see what everyone is watching ? It is too much !" complained Ilya.

"Yes, you're right," agreed Oscar. "We need to try to work out who they're watching and what for. Maybe Rose and Tom will give us some kit to help out tomorrow. It would be good to get some more eyeballs on to it," he added. "Pizza ?" he asked.

"Oh yes ! It is pizza o'clock !" agreed Ilya. "Ham and pineapple ?" he asked.

"Spawn of the devil !" complained Oscar.

"Pepperoni it is then," said Ilya with a grin. They both dived into the door of a take-away pizza shop, laughing as they both tried to force their way in at the same time.

Aneisha was sitting at home going through her file of information about the part of Zac Zucchero. It was kind of weird. She could swear that all this information related to a real person. Why would anyone bother to list their favourite toiletries. This didn't sound like playing a part. It sounded more like pretending to be someone. She thought she was training Marco to impersonate a real person called Zac Zucchero.

The other thing that was bothering her was that Zac didn't sound like a particularly nice person. He was aggressive and used to being in charge, according to his description. The file described him as physically fit and a good fighter. He sounded worryingly like a criminal. It wasn't as if Marco was particularly friendly either. He gave her the creeps and it was a constant struggle to stay chatty and upbeat with him during their sessions. Sighing, Aneisha slammed the folder shut and slumped back in her chair. She decided she would have to dig a little deeper into Zac Zucchero.


	7. Chapter 7

**The teams have been divided up to investigate Perfect Match. Criminal activities.**

**OK, hands up here. I have been carefully putting breaks between the different points of view to (hopefully) make them easier to follow. I just read through the last chapter and realised that they all disappeared when it got published. Sorry. Also, several people have now pointed out that the two teams have met in previous stories of mine. I did know this, but I have written so many stories now, that I forgot which ones they had met in and how. I gave up and started from scratch with this one. Sorry if this was confusing. Also, for the person who asked, I haven't forgotten Carrie. **

_Sighing, Aneisha slammed the folder shut and slumped back in her chair. She decided she would have to dig a little deeper into Zac Zucchero._

The next day, Dan and Keri set off for a meeting with an arms dealer they were supposed to be doing a deal with. They parked their motorbike in a side street and walked the rest of the way to a public park. They found a man sitting at a bench reading a paper while a small group of men stood watchfully, scattered around the nearby area. Keri walked up to the bench and sat down beside the man. Dan stood a few feet away, keeping watch on the watchers.

"Miss Zucchero," said the man after glancing at her briefly. "The word on the street was that you and your dear brother had been detained by MI9," he said softly.

The man's tone of voice made Keri want to shiver. He was so creepy. "Rumours are worthless !" spat Keri. "We had a little local difficulty which has now been resolved. Zac and I had to step out of the loop for a little while to avoid capture. That is all," she said dismissively.

"That is not what I heard," said the man ominously.

"You heard wrong," said Keri flatly. Boy, this guy didn't give up easily !

"I also heard that your previous boyfriend met with a very nasty accident," said the man lightly.

"What are you talking about ?" asked Keri, now genuinely puzzled.

"Oh, I am sure that you and your brother have a very, shall we say, healthy relationship," said the man with a nasty smile before glancing up at Dan's suspicious face.

Keri suddenly realised what the man was getting at and her skin crawled. Eew ! "For a man who deals in guns you seem to have a very unhealthy interest in my personal life !" snapped Keri. "Shall we get on with it before my brother gets bored ? Or would you like me to tell him that you were paying a little too much attention to me ?" she asked with fake sweetness.

The smile disappeared from the man's face and he pulled back slightly, glancing surreptitiously at Dan. Dan was still looking suspicious. Keri thought it fortunate that Dan always looked suspicious when on a mission. Actually, come to think of it, he looked suspicious most of the time. In the current circumstances it gave him a useful air of brooding menace. Normally she just found it annoying.

"Did you get what I wanted ?" asked the man.

"We have a source for what you want," said Keri. "It isn't in our possession yet. If you want it, we can get it."

"How soon ?" asked the man.

"We can get it tomorrow, if you have the money," said Keri confidently.

"How do I know you can really get hold of it ?" asked the man.

"Have we ever failed before ?" asked Keri in an annoyed manner.

"No. But you have not been so close to being caught by MI9 before," said the man sharply.

"Why don't you let us worry about that ?" suggested Keri. "You just make sure you make the payment. Usual arrangement," she added, wondering what that might be.

"The Swiss bank account ?" asked the man.

"Yes," agreed Keri, hoping he wasn't bluffing.

"Very well. Four o'clock tomorrow. No later. I will arrange the money transfer for exactly four. You can witness it as usual," said the man. He stopped speaking and stared at Keri for a moment. Keri held her breath. Had he noticed something. "Have you changed your appearance ?" he asked, wrinkling up his eyes.

"Yes. Wouldn't you ?" she asked him. He smiled thinly and shrugged.

"Shame. You would look good with red hair," said the man, leering at her.

Keri's skin crawled thinking about the man. "I will do you a big favour and not mention what you just said to my brother," she said quietly. The man's smile instantly disappeared and he abruptly stood to leave.

"Tomorrow !" he said, and walked away, followed after a minute by his guards.

"What was that all about ?" asked Dan, as they too left the park in the opposite direction.

"I think you have a reputation for killing any guy who touches me," said Keri.

"Fair enough," said Dan, nodding. Keri looked at him sideways. "Could come in handy," Dan explained.

"Don't you think it's a bit, well, creepy ?" asked Keri.

"Just don't go there," suggested Dan. "I don't like these people already. I don't need any more reasons not to like them."

"Dan, are you supposed to be getting jealous about Keri ?" came Tom's intrigued voice in their ears.

Dan and Keri looked at one another and rolled their eyes. They had totally forgotten about Tom listening in to the meeting. "No Tom. Zac is supposed to be jealous about Tanya," said Dan firmly.

"Maybe what he said about you changing your appearances would be a good idea though," suggested Tom. "You could maybe look like yourselves and get away with it, if you said you were in hiding from MI9," he added.

Dan looked at Keri and frowned. "Actually, that's not such a bad idea," he said thoughtfully.

"That's what the boy genius is for !" said Tom brightly.

"Oh !" groaned Keri. "He is going to be unbearable !"

Aneisha meanwhile was running through a scenario with Marco. Her suspicions were starting to be confirmed. Marco came up with a scenario he wanted to work on where he was dealing with a group of Moroccan drugs smugglers. "I think I should be quieter," he said. "A little sinister but not openly threatening" he added.

"Have you got someone in mind ?" asked Aneisha quietly ?

"What do you mean ?" demanded Marco sharply.

"Oh, Brad Pitt or even Kevin Spacey ?" suggested Aneisha quickly.

"Oh. Oh, I see what you mean," said Marco, quickly backing down. "Oh, I don't know. I suppose Kevin Spacey as that criminal guy," he said, snapping his fingers. "I've forgotten his name. You know, in 'The Usual Suspects'," he said.

"Oh, I think I know the one you mean. Where the guy was apparently a petty criminal, but turned out to be the big boss that everyone was trying to find ?" said Aneisha.

"Yeah, that one !" said Marco. "I want to be like that. Like I'm apparently nobody, but actually I'm somebody."

"Okaaay. I think we can work on that," said Aneisha, completely baffled. This guy was weird. "Let's go from the top then," she said encouragingly.

Marco knelt on the floor and pretended to be looking at something. "This isn't as pure as usual. Are you trying to con us ?" said Marco, staring angrily ahead. He looked at Aneisha. "What do you think ? Is it good enough ?" he asked her.

"Erm, I think that should be just fine," said Aneisha.

"No. That's not what you say," said Marco, looking annoyed. Aneisha looked at him in complete confusion.

"What ? Oh ! That scenario is not in my file," said Aneisha with a frown.

Marco suddenly looked worried. "Oh, yeah. It was just something I made up. A little role play, you know," he said, with a nervous laugh.

Aneisha managed a laugh in return. "Okay. That's fine. You can come up with your own stuff if you like. I was asked to stick with the file," she explained.

"Yeah, sure. No problem," said Marco with a weak smile.

"Well, why don't we try another scenario," suggested Aneisha. "We can work on your facial expression," she suggested. Like he could do with something other than nasty.


	8. Chapter 8

**The teams have been divided up to investigate Perfect Match. Getting the inside connection.**

"_Well, why don't we try another scenario," suggested Aneisha. "We can work on your facial expression," she suggested. Like he could do with something other than nasty._

Once Dan and Keri returned to their apartment a fierce argument broke out. "We can't hand over a Deception Cloak to an international arms dealer !" complained Stella.

"Do we really have a choice Stella ?" asked Dan. "If you want us to stay in cover then we can't do anything else."

"You could plant a tracer in it," suggested Tom. Dan silently thanked Tom for putting in a good suggestion.

"It would be difficult for Dan and Keri to continue in their roles if they fail to supply a customer. Tanya and Zac have a strong track record," said Frank.

"It's a classified, highly dangerous piece of technology !" complained Stella. "We have no idea whose hands it might fall into. In the hands of our enemies it could cause serious damage to ourselves and our allies," she pointed out.

"Well, our other option would be to neutralise it somehow," suggested Tom, "you know, so that it doesn't actually work," he added.

"Won't that come back on us if it's faulty ?" asked Keri, sounding uncertain.

"Well, possibly, but it could take a while for them to find out," said Tom thoughtfully. "Hopefully, you would be out of there by then," he added.

Dan and Keri looked at one another. "That's easy for you to say," muttered Dan.

xoxoxoxox

On their second day at Perfect Match Oscar and Ilya marched into the interpreters' room confidently. Tom and Rose had loaded them up with electronics. Tom had given them a detailed description of how they worked which had mostly gone over their heads. As far as Oscar could make out, they were going to hide software in the computer systems which would quietly infiltrate the systems, listen into transmissions and send the information out in disguise. They also had to install some small electronic gizmos which would hide signals on the electricity cables. Rose had simply told them what to do. That had been a lot easier to follow.

As they walked through the room, Ilya leaned towards Oscar. "What is a gizmo ?" he asked.

Oscar grinned. "Well, it's a, erm, that is, erm, it's a gadget thingy," he said finally, his face screwed up with the effort.

"A gadget thingy," said Ilya doubtfully.

"Yes. That may not be in the dictionary," said Oscar.

"I do not think so no," agreed Ilya with a straight face.

"Petrov ! James !" said a woman holding a printout in her hands. "Right gentlemen, I have your assignments for today," she said, running her finger down the list of names. "James you are on terminal 12, Italian, and Petrov you are on terminal 3, Russian," she said, smiling at them both.

"See you later maybe," Ilya said to Oscar, as they headed off to their respective terminals. They both gazed around them, checking again for CCTV cameras which could be spying on them. Ilya reached his terminal first and slung his shoulder bag under the desk. Everyone who came in was being given their assignments and settling at their terminals. Taking advantage of the general hubbub, Ilya reached under his terminal in the guise of pulling a drink bottle out of his bag and slipped his device under the back of the desk, reaching for the cables gathered behind the woodwork. It took him a second to find the power cable so he pretended to take a quick drink from his bottle while he was scrabbling around. Ilya sat back up after attaching the device because he thought he had been out of sight for long enough. He surreptitiously looked around to check that nobody had noticed his peculiar activity. Everyone appeared to be busy with their own arrangements. He hoped his gizmo was working. He wouldn't know until he went home and Rose told him. He was looking forward to talking to Rose.

While Ilya had been busy attaching his transmitter, Oscar had also been feeling around under his terminal trying to find a computer. There didn't seem to be one. Frustrated, Oscar looked around trying to see where the terminals could be getting their feeds from. Unfortunately there was no big red arrow pointing the way. If only there was sign on the door saying "Top Secret Villain's Lair" his life as a spy would be so much simpler. It would be pretty boring as well though, he admitted to himself. His desk was surrounded by high walls cutting off his line of sight to anyone else in the room, including Ilya. Oscar decided to wait until lunch time and see if he could get access to a computer somewhere in the building.

After a morning's hard work interpreting the action taking place in their recordings, both Oscar and Ilya were ready for a break. "So, Petrov, how was your morning ?" Oscar asked Ilya.

"I am on fire today. I have the electricity !" Ilya said in a theatrical manner, waving his hands around vigorously. Oscar had to grin. While it was funny watching Ilya playing a pantomime foreign character he had got the message. Ilya had taken care of the transmission device. "And you ?" asked Ilya.

"A little disappointing," admitted Oscar. "I can't seem to find the processing power this morning," he said. Ilya looked a little blank and then Oscar saw him get his coded message.

"So, we must find that processing power," said Ilya. Oscar nodded. They hung back a little as the language specialists slowly streamed out of the room, heading for the catering area. The woman who had handed out their assignments came out of a small side room leaving the door swinging slowly shut behind her. Ilya took a series of huge strides to reach the door and stick his foot inside just before it locked itself shut. He and Oscar dived inside quickly. "Yes !" hissed Ilya triumphantly when they found a computer on the desk.

Oscar scuttled round to the keyboard and pulled up a screen. "It's screen-locked," he muttered. Oscar pulled a small locket up from inside his t-shirt and held it against the keyboard of the computer. A series of letters and numbers flickered across the screen before settling on a particular sequence. "Seriously ? MyLittlePony !" said Oscar disbelievingly. "What kind of password is that ?" He typed it in, hanging the locket back round his neck. "OK, we're in," he said. Oscar took a memory stick out of his pocket and inserted it into the side of the computer. He watched as an icon appeared and the clock ticked as the software downloaded itself. It seemed to take forever. Ilya stood by the door, listening in case anyone came near. Finally the spinning wheel disappeared and the icon vanished from the screen. Oscar pulled out the memory stick and pocketed it. "Let's go !" he said. Ilya carefully opened the door, waved the all clear to Oscar and the two dived quickly out of the room before heading for the catering area with everyone else.

On their way they met the supervising woman on her way back, carrying a sandwich and cup of coffee. She looked at them curiously. "Taking your time gentlemen," she commented.

"Yes. We go to the toilets first," said Ilya. "Then there is no queue when we arrive for lunch," he said, smiling his most charming smile at the woman. She flushed slightly and gave him a small smile back.

"Tart !" whispered Oscar once they were out of earshot.

"I am merely doing my job," complained Ilya. "I would hate to say that I do it better than you," he teased Oscar.

"Oh ! You are so going to pay for that !" said Oscar with mock anger. "Maybe I should tell Rose what you are so much better at than me !" he threatened.

"Oh, no no no !" said Ilya, laughing nervously. "This is purely in the interests of work. I am entirely selfless in my devotion to duty !" he added. Oscar could no longer stop the grin spreading across his face. Ilya waved his finger at Oscar and growled, "Argh ! You know me too well now," he complained before laughing.

xoxoxoxox

Back at MI9 HQ, Tom spun round and round in his chair feeling bored. Dan and Keri were taking a break while Frank and Stella arranged for the supply of the Deception Cloak. He had whiled away an hour hacking into the systems to find out what a Deception Cloak was. Now he had nothing to do and was waiting for something to happen. Rose had been called away to assist Frank and Stella so he couldn't even talk to her. As he slumped further down in his chair he swivelled back round to face his computer screen. It beeped gently and an icon appeared, followed with a stream of text. Tom leapt bolt upright, almost falling off his chair. "Yes !" he shouted. Tom pulled out his phone and called Rose. "Rose, they've done it. We're getting intel," Tom told her happily.

"Great work Tom. Start distributing it," said Rose's voice over his phone. "I'll be back shortly. We're nearly finished here," she added.

Tom gazed happily at the screen before his smile faded. Oh what ? It was nearly all in foreign languages. He groaned and started looking for somewhere to send the messages. He wished Oscar and Ilya were there. Tom couldn't even speak French, despite three years of French lessons from Mr. Flatley. Or maybe, it was because of three years of French lessons from Mr. Flatley.


	9. Chapter 9

**The teams have been divided up to investigate Perfect Match. Too much information.**

_Tom gazed happily at the screen before his smile faded. Oh what ? It was nearly all in foreign languages. He groaned and started looking for somewhere to send the messages. He wished Oscar and Ilya were there. Tom couldn't even speak French, despite three years of French lessons from Mr. Flatley. Or maybe, it was because of three years of French lessons from Mr. Flatley._

Oscar and Ilya were called as they left work and asked to return to HQ to help decipher some of the information which they had helped to supply. "I think there must be a lot," said Ilya. "Otherwise they would not be calling us."

"Well, we saw how many interpreter's booths there are in that room," pointed out Oscar. "There must be at least forty. I bet they are employing half the interpreters in town at the moment."

"I don't see how they are making the money," said Ilya thoughtfully. "How are they paying for all of this ?"

"Good question. Let's see if we can help to find the answer," suggested Oscar. "Pizza to go ?" he asked.

"I think maybe enough pizza this week," groaned Ilya. "There are no fat agents in MI9."

"Okay, sushi ?" suggested Oscar.

"No, no, not that !" said Ilya looking horrified. "How about potato ?"

"Cabbage soup ?" suggested Oscar with a grin.

"There is nothing wrong with cabbage soup !" Ilya scolded him. "After the cabbage soup, there is a little problem, I will admit," he said wincing. "I hope to see Rose later. Please, no cabbage soup tonight."

"Baked potato then," said Oscar. "We can get a salad with it. We're going to need some vitamins." They called in at a takeaway shop for their meal and headed off to HQ via a roundabout route, carrying their warm food boxes.

Once inside HQ they were directed to meet with Tom and Rose. Ilya smiled happily at Rose who responded shyly. "Ooh, that smells good !" said Tom eagerly. "What have you got ?" he asked.

"We have potato !" said Oscar, imitating Ilya's accent. "Haven't you eaten ?" he asked with concern.

"Yes he has," said Rose. Tom looked a little crestfallen. "Lots !" said Rose. Tom now looked very sheepish. Ilya and Oscar felt sorry for him.

"He is a growing boy," said Oscar kindly.

"Not necessarily the kind of growing an MI9 agent should be doing !" said Rose. Oscar thought she was sounding more and more like Mrs. King. "He needs to be able to run."

"Oh what's with all the running !" complained Tom. "You're all obsessed with running !"

Rose, Oscar and Ilya looked at one another. "You don't do a lot of field work do you Tom ?" asked Oscar. Tom shook his head looking puzzled. "Well, we have to do quite a lot of running away," said Oscar. "The bad guys get upset easily."

"If you don't want to fight, you have to run," said Ilya. "Do you fight well ?" he asked. Again Tom shook his head, but he was starting to look a little less confident now. "Then you had better learn to run," said Ilya seriously. He was no longer teasing or making jokes. "I am very serious Tom. You will have a very short life if you cannot either fight or run, unless you want to spend your whole life locked in a laboratory in MI9."

"You can get yourself out of many situations by being clever," said Rose gently, "but at some point, you need to be able to keep yourself alive the hard way. We're not having a go at you Tom. We like working with you. I don't want to see you getting hurt," she added, giving him a gentle smile. "Maybe fewer biscuits, and a bit more running around ?" she suggested, prodding him gently in the stomach. Tom felt mortified and glad that Dan and Keri weren't there. They would have been laughing themselves silly by now if they were. Slightly ashamed of himself, he realised that Rose and the others were right. He didn't want to spend his whole working life locked in a laboratory listening to his friends taking all the risks.

"So, what do you want us to do ?" asked Oscar before forking a pile of potato and tuna into his mouth.

"When you've finished with that, you can start translating some of this stuff that is coming in," said Rose. "There's some video as well," she added, pointing to computers lining the desks at the side of the room. She handed Oscar and Ilya a set of headphones each. "I'm sorry. I know you've been doing this all day, but we're short of linguists at HQ at the moment. We need you," she said apologetically.

"It is OK. I would like to spend some time here," said Ilya. "I will finish this first and then get to work," he promised, before starting work on his baked potato and salad.

It was late in the night before the team gave up. Oscar and Ilya were exhausted from spending the whole day translating. Oscar was rubbing his forehead. "I'm not sure what language I'm thinking in now. What am I speaking in ?" he asked, looking confused.

"English. It's OK," said Tom. He was also looking tired. He and Rose had been feeding information generated by Ilya and Oscar into their new software, trying to find relationships between them. "I think we will have to ask someone else to keep this going through the night. There's just too much," he complained. "I'm getting tired and I might miss something," he added.

"We are all tired. We should get some rest. Oscar and I have to turn up at Perfect Match again tomorrow, or they will smell a large rodent," said Ilya.

"Rat," said Tom.

"Yes, I know it is," said Ilya impatiently. "So, Goodnight Rose. It was nice to see you again," said Ilya, kissing her on the cheek.

Rose smiled and gave him a hug. "You too," she said. "Oh, I nearly forgot. Tom, where did we put the communicators ?" she asked. "We gave Aneisha hers earlier."

"Oops, I totally forgot," said Tom. He rummaged in a drawer and pulled out a tie pin and pair of cuff links. "I'm afraid one of you will have to wear a tie," he said, handing it over. Ilya took the cuff links and Oscar took the tie pin. "You need to use them with these," said Tom, handing over what looked like two small, circular sticking plasters. "You need to stick this to your skin, just behind your ear. It plays the sound directly into your ear canal, making it audible only to you. Hopefully it will match in with your skin and should be covered up by your ear and hair," he added. "It works over a fairly short distance, so you will be able to communicate with Aneisha and us. We'll be moving a bit closer so we can talk to you," explained Tom.

"Is there a plan ?" asked Oscar, carefully putting the devices away in his wallet.

"Yes. Once we've found something useful in all this information, HQ are hoping to get you searching the building tomorrow," explained Rose. "You might need us as backup," she added, trying but failing to hide her concern.

"Why the sudden rush ?" asked Oscar. He had thought this was going to be a slow burning mission. It sounded like something had suddenly become more urgent.

Rose and Tom looked at one another. "There's a character called Zac Zucchero who keeps cropping up in the material," explained Tom. "Aneisha seems to be training someone to take his place. This wouldn't matter only MI9 have already replaced him with someone from my team. Dan and Keri are presently under cover as Zac Zucchero and his sister Tanya," he explained. "We hoped they might be able to get a lead on Perfect Match. Unfortunately, MI9 seem to have picked on one of their intended targets. We don't know why or how yet," he added, sounding worried. "Aneisha doesn't know yet. Frank and Stella didn't want to worry her."

"I see. Well, I guess we need to find out about it urgently tomorrow," said Oscar. "We'll speak to you then," he said, giving Rose a quick hug. She smiled at him gratefully.

"Be careful," said Rose.

"I am always careful," Ilya assured her. Rose and Oscar looked like they were about to protest.

"Yes, I know ! That was just one time, well maybe two or three, but I am very careful. Just possibly I am sometimes a little unlucky," said Ilya.

"Well, maybe, just stick together ?" Rose suggested.

Ilya looked at Oscar and shrugged. "Yeeees. I stick with my sensible friend," he sighed.

Oscar put his arm round Ilya's shoulder and grinned. "With you, I'm always the sensible one !"

"Oh, I'm like that with Dan !" exclaimed Tom. "He does all the running around and I do the sensible stuff."

"That sounds very familiar," said Ilya wearily, which made them all laugh.


	10. Chapter 10

**The teams have been divided up to investigate Perfect Match. Just a simple arms deal. What could possibly go wrong ?**

**Good luck to everyone writing at the moment. Your stories are great. Katniss Bella Potter, torchwoodfan4eva, ibliniy, M. Fan 2000, IwillBelieveIt. There's no way I can name-check everyone sorry. There are lots of great stories out there.**

_Oscar put his arm round Ilya's shoulder and grinned. "With you, I'm always the sensible one !"_

"_Oh, I'm like that with Dan !" exclaimed Tom. "He does all the running around and I do the sensible stuff."_

"_That sounds very familiar," said Ilya wearily, which made them all laugh._

Dan and Keri collected their van from the car hire company. Stella was working at the desk and smiled at them both. She showed them to the vehicle and silently pointed out the listening devices and tracker planted in the vehicle. Stella held out the keys and Keri took them. Stella looked at her with her eyebrows raised. "I may need to see your driving licence," she said meaningfully. Keri looked at Stella and silently handed the keys to Dan, before huffily climbing into the passenger seat of the van and folding her arms.

Dan climbed into the driver's seat and started the engine. "You should ask for driving lessons," Dan said to Keri. "You can get them. They're brilliant fun !" he said with a grin. In spite of her annoyance, Keri found his smile infectious and couldn't help smiling back. She wondered what Dan had been like learning to drive. He seemed to do everything at a run. She guessed the driving instructor probably had a few extra grey hairs if Dan took the same attitude to driving. So far, he had driven the motorbike quite carefully, but that could have been because she was on the passenger seat.

They had both returned to their own appearances. It had seemed less important to look like the real Zac and Tanya when they realised that they were supposed to be in hiding from MI9. Hence, Dan was blond again and Keri had gone back to her natural red hair. She had been tempted to go blonde herself, but decided against it after the length of time it took to get rid of the black dye. Going non-blonde would be way too much hassle.

After a short drive they arrived at an anonymous building on the outskirts of town. They climbed down, looking around them cautiously, before walking towards a lockup. As they approached, the door of the lockup rolled up in to the roof. Frank stepped out, looking shifty. "Do you have the goods ?" Keri asked him.

Frank sniffed and looked around them nervously. "Yeah. You got the cash ?" he asked. Dan handed over a black holdall which Frank checked, before waving them into the building. A complex looking machine the size of a fridge sat on a trolley.

"Is that it ?" asked Dan.

"Yeah, that's the Deception Cloak," said Frank. "Fully operational," he added, bobbing up and down on his heels. Dan could tell that Frank was lying and instantly tensed with anxiety. He really hoped that this was going to work. "Instructions," said Frank, handing over a manual with 'Top Secret – Deception Cloak' printed on the front. Frank helped them to load the device into the back of their van and they set off for their rendezvous.

Dan didn't speak all the way to their destination. Keri could see that he was tense and she knew why. If the arms dealers did insist on testing the Deception Cloak, they were in big trouble. She couldn't think of anything to say, so she too stayed silent. "Guys, are you there ?" asked Tom's puzzled voice in their ear.

"Yes," answered Dan. Tom didn't ask any more questions. It was clear from Dan's tone of voice that he wasn't in the mood for chit chat.

Finally they arrived at the meeting point. Dan and Keri surveyed the surrounding area carefully, looking for potential exit routes and any signs of trouble. They had been told to meet at an empty industrial unit at the end of a large industrial estate. Many of the units were empty and the whole area had a dilapidated look to it. Weeds were growing through the pavements, there was graffiti on the walls and piles of rubbish had been dumped on several empty lots.

Dan drove into the fenced area around the empty building. Another van was already parked in the middle of an area of cracked concrete which had weeds and small bushes growing through. Three men and a woman walked forwards as Dan pulled the van to a halt. He stopped the engine but left the keys in the ignition. He and Keri got out. "Nice place you've got," said Dan dryly.

The arms dealer snorted with a shake of his head. "Always the joker aren't you Zac ?" he snarled. He looked at Keri and smirked. "Red hair, hm ? I'm glad you took my advice," he said, leering at her. Keri stiffened. She'd forgotten the creep had said she should have red hair. Eeuw ! The man looked back at Dan. "Never figured you for a blond," he smirked.

"That's the general idea," said Dan, putting no emotion into his voice. "Are you ready to make the transfer ?" he asked.

"When the goods are in my possession," said the dealer, pointing to his van. "My people will help," he added, snapping his fingers. The small dark-skinned woman and the three men stepped forwards to the hire van and Keri looked to Dan. He nodded and she opened up the back doors. They all managed to man-handle the device into the back of the arms dealer's van. Dan tossed the instruction manual in on top of the equipment.

"You'll need that," he said. "Now, the money." The arms dealer smiled grimly and waved over one of his men. The man brought a small tablet device and the dealer started to tap on the screen.

"Test the device," he said to one of the men, who walked over to the Deception Cloak and picked up the manual. "Can you use it ?" asked the dealer.

"Yes. No problem," said the man.

"I'll complete the transfer when I see it working," said the dealer.

Dan and Keri looked at one another. Dan thought furiously. What the hell were they going to do now ? "Tanya, get the laptop in the cab and make sure the transfer goes through," Dan said to Keri. There was no reason for both of them to get caught. He'd left the keys in the ignition in case they had to leave quickly. Keri nodded, looking like she was in a daze and climbed into the driver's seat, then reached over to grab the laptop from her backpack, before opening it on her knee. Once the laptop was open all of the dealer's team ignored her, turning instead to watch the man operating the Deception Cloak. The machine started to hum into life.

"This should do it," said the man, flipping a final switch. The device threw out a weird kind of swirling energy wave which immediately collapsed in on itself and the device went silent. Everyone stared at it, stunned by the silence for a second.

"Tanya ! Drive ! Now !" yelled Dan, throwing himself away from the vehicle and sprinting towards the gate.

Keri fired up the van, slammed her door shut and rammed her foot down on what she hoped was the accelerator. The vehicle lurched forwards and Keri turned the wheel sharply to avoid crashing into the side of the other van. The van swerved to the left, and she clipped one of the arms' dealer's men who failed to jump out of the way quickly enough. Keri's stomach churned as she watched the frightened face of the man register the pain of being hit before he was flung to the side out of her sight. What should she do about Dan ? She didn't know. Panicking she realised she had to concentrate on controlling the van. She had no idea what she was doing. Everyone else made driving look so easy.

The noise of the engine reached a high pitched screech. This was all wrong. What was she supposed to do ? "Tom ! How do I drive this thing ?" Keri begged.

Frank's voice came over her comms. "Keri, point the van towards the exit and keep pressing your foot on the right hand pedal. That is the accelerator. To stop, press the middle pedal. Don't worry about changing gear right now. Just get out of there !" he ordered her.

"What about Dan ?" sobbed Keri, doing as Frank told her. The van swerved from side to side as she tried to line up with the gate. In her peripheral vision she could just see Dan sprinting slightly behind her, then he suddenly disappeared.

"Dan will get some help," said Frank calmly. "Keep driving."

Dan watched the van screeching towards the exit and thought he could just about make it when he felt an intense pain in the back of his leg and found he couldn't put any weight on it suddenly. He fell to the ground, unable to stand, skidding across the rough concrete shards. He looked round to see the shaft of a knife sticking out of the back of his thigh. The sight of it made him feel sick.

Dan looked up to see one of the dealer's men sprinting towards him with a satisfied grin on his face, followed by the small dark-skinned woman. The dealer and the man who had operated the cloaking device were waiting at their van, looking angry. Dan spun round in an attempt to protect himself from his attacker and was astonished to see the small woman grabbing his attacker, and knocking him flying with a massive karate kick. The guy collapsed to the ground unconscious.

"Surprise !" said the young woman with a grin. "I think we've got a van to catch," she said. "Come on !" and she helped Dan to his feet. "Don't try to pull it out !" she warned as he reached for the knife handle. "You'll bleed," she explained. "You must be Dan," she said. "I'm Carrie."

"Uh," grunted Dan. He had no idea what was going on. "Keri ! Stop the van !" he panted as Carrie half carried him out of the compound's gate. The van instantly stopped, just outside the gate, and its engine stalled. The passenger door was flung open and Carrie and Keri helped Dan climb up inside. He couldn't sit down and instead curled up on the floor, trying desperately to avoid pressing on the knife embedded in his leg. Carrie swung the door shut and climbed carefully over Dan.

"I think I'd better drive don't you ?" she said, grinning at Keri. Keri asked no questions, but slid out of the driver's seat and let Carrie take the controls. "Hold on," said Carrie before firing up the engine and driving them off at speed. "Guys, Dan needs medical attention," said Carrie tensely, checking her mirror. "Oh, damn. They're following us," she added.


	11. Chapter 11

**The teams have been divided up to investigate Perfect Match. Carrie who ?**

"_I think I'd better drive don't you ?" she said, grinning at Keri. Keri asked no questions, but slid out of the driver's seat and let Carrie take the controls. "Hold on," said Carrie before firing up the engine and driving them off at speed. "Guys, Dan needs medical attention," said Carrie tensely, checking her mirror. "Oh, damn. They're following us," she added._

"Frank, we need some help here !" said Keri. "The arms dealer is after us, and erm ?" she asked looking at her driver.

"Carrie," said Carrie with a smile. "I used to work for Frank," she explained. "Speaking of which, Frank we need a diversion, quickly," she said. "Have you got our location ?" she asked.

"Yes, we've got a tracker on the van," came Rose's voice. "Diversion coming your way Carrie. Take the next right," she instructed. Carrie did as she was told. "OK, now take the next left, and keep driving. Don't worry about what's going on behind you," said Rose.

Carrie raised her eyebrows at Keri and put her foot down. "Come on van. Give it some wellie !" she ordered with a wicked grin. Keri liked her so much. She felt like they were two of a kind. Then she heard a soft grunt of pain from Dan and felt guilty to have forgotten him for a moment. He was looking pale and sickly as a small pool of blood grew slowly under his leg. "Hang in there Dan. The cavalry are coming," promised Carrie.

Carrie looked in her rear view mirror and saw a large lorry pulling across the road, right in front of the pursuing van. She tore on up the street and took a couple of turns before looking in the mirror again. "We've lost them. Thanks guys !" she said.

"No worries. Pull in somewhere. We'll get the medical team to you," said Rose. Carrie pulled into an alleyway between two tall buildings, taking care to pull right into the shadows. "They should be with you in about eight minutes," Rose promised.

"That's eight minutes mind, not five, or ten. Exactly eight," Carried muttered into Keri's ear, making her smile. She glanced down at Dan now resting his forehead on the car seat. "Come on, let's see if we can make Dan a bit more comfortable."

Carrie and Keri climbed down from the driver's side door and walked round to the passenger side. Carrie pulled open the door so Dan could get a little more air. She glanced up as a dark vehicle pulled up at the end of the alley and reversed towards them. "That was quick," she said, glancing at her watch. "Five minutes ! I shall have to chastise Rose !" she said playfully. "He's on this side ! Knife wound !" she called out to the two medics who were walking towards them. One of the medics pulled something from his pocket and Carrie looked on in shock as he pointed a small dart gun at them. Keri and Carrie felt sharp scratches on their necks, before the world went dark and they fell to the ground.

"Carrie ! Carrie ! Are you Okay ?" asked a voice.

"Mm, hm," mumbled Carrie.

"She's coming round. Thank goodness," said Frank's voice. "It's Okay Carrie, you're safe," said Frank softly.

Carrie lifted her head. "Ooh, my head !" she complained. "What ? Oh my God ! Dan !"

"He's gone," said Frank, waving his hand to towards the empty van. "So has Keri. Our medics arrived to find you unconscious and the other two missing. There's some blood, but no Dan, and no Keri."

"Oh God ! Who's taken them ?" asked Carrie shakily.

"We don't know," said Frank, "but we're going to find out," he said grimly.

"Dan had a knife in his leg," said Carrie. "Oh Frank. I'm so sorry," she said, holding her face in her hand.

"Don't be. This was carefully planned. I need you Carrie," said Frank. "Dan and Keri need you. Come on !"

xxxooxxxx

Earlier that morning, Oscar, Ilya and Aneisha turned up for work at Perfect Match as usual. The only difference was that they were now wearing microphones which were immune to the building's transmission defences and a tiny sticking plaster behind their ear. As soon as she arrived, Aneisha was called into a meeting with Zoltan. "Ah, Molly, just the person I need to speak to. We are having a review on the progress of Marco. We would welcome your input," said Zoltan, leading her to the office where the acting coaches were based. Two other people were sitting in the room, a dark-haired woman a little older than herself and an older man.

"Will Marco be coming ?" asked Aneisha.

"No. He has some work to do," said the dark-haired woman. "We want your opinion on his progress. Do you think he is ready to imitate Zac ?"

"Imitate him ?" asked Aneisha innocently. It was just as they had suspected. Marco was being trained to replace this guy called Zac. From the scenarios they had played out, Zac was obviously some kind of criminal. Maybe these guys were some kind of freelance crime fighting organisation. Surely MI9 would know about it if they were.

Aneisha's thoughts were interrupted by the older man clearing his throat. "No, what Sonia means is whether Marco is ready to take on this role. He has to act as a stand-in for our client on occasion. Do you think he will be able to pass himself off as Zac when he is required to do so ?" asked the older man smoothly.

Aneisha was impressed. The guy knew how to spin a line ! She appeared to give it some thought. "Well, yes, I think he could easily carry it off for short periods of time. I am not sure whether he has the concentration required to be able to hold up the act for long periods though," she said. "I'm sure that with a little more coaching he would continue to improve. Also, some job experience would help enormously," she added encouragingly. Whoever Zac was, she couldn't believe he could be half as unpleasant as Marco was turning out to be.

"Thank you Molly. That is very useful input," said Zoltan. "Perhaps we could watch his performances in some of your videos," he suggested.

Aneisha played a series of recent scenarios which she had recorded Marco 'performing'. As she watched them back to back she realised for the first time that Marco looked most natural in his performance when he was doing the things which came most easily to him. These seemed to include bullying, intimidation, violence and general bad behaviour. She was so not going to miss this guy !

"Hm, I think he has most of it correct now," said the woman thoughtfully. "It will have to do. We are nearing our deadline. Are we ready for the final stage ?" she asked the older man.

The man nodded towards Aneisha, who was pretending to fuss with the video controls, and shook his head. "I think we have all the information we need now. Thank you Miss Marsters," he said, standing to shake her hand. "Good work," he said smiling at her. Aneisha smiled back.

"Thanks !" she said cheerily.

"Why don't you go and get yourself a coffee," suggested Zoltan. "We need to discuss some further business, and then I'll get you started on a new assignment," he said smiling at her.

Aneisha nodded, and got up to leave. As the door closed behind her she heard the man's voice saying, "We expect to have them both here by this afternoon. We're tracking them closely, although they seem to have changed their appearance quite radically. Probably to avoid detection by ….."

Aneisha cursed the door which closed too soon for her to hear the rest of the sentence. She did as she had been told and headed for the catering area for a coffee. She was still sitting sipping her drink when all the translators poured in for their break. Ilya and Oscar came and joined her at her table. "Anything happening ?" Oscar asked Aneisha. "We don't normally see you here," he commented.

"Looks like my assignment with the guy who is pretending to be Zac Zucchero has come to an end. They were saying something about two people coming here later today," Aneisha said quietly. "I couldn't hear all of it." She was worried when she saw the shocked looks on Oscar's and Ilya's faces as they looked sharply at one another. "What's going on ?" she asked suspiciously.

Oscar sighed. "I think you need to know," he murmured.

"Know what ?" asked Aneisha.

"Dan and Keri," whispered Ilya.


	12. Chapter 12

**The teams have been divided up to investigate Perfect Match. Comings and goings. Thanks for the reviews guys. They keep me going.**

_Oscar sighed. "I think you need to know," he murmured._

"_Know what ?" asked Aneisha._

"_Dan and Keri," whispered Ilya._

Oscar looked around them casually to make sure nobody was sitting within earshot. "Keep it casual Aneisha," he warned. Aneisha immediately swept the emotion off her face. She couldn't afford to be caught out here. "You weren't told about this in case you got caught out," explained Oscar. "Dan and Keri have been working undercover as Zac and Tanya Zucchero. They are a pair of criminals who were captured recently by MI9 and were chosen at random as a way for MI9 to infiltrate the activities of Perfect Match. Nobody expected to find that Perfect Match were training someone to take their place," he hissed, rolling his eyes at Aneisha.

"Do you think they might be the two people who are coming here this afternoon ?" asked Aneisha quietly, trying to keep a cheery smile on her face.

"It would be a big coincidence if it is not them," said Ilya, grinning widely. Aneisha had to swallow a laugh. It was so incongruous sitting here discussing the possible abduction of her friends with big happy smiles on their faces.

"Erm guys," came Tom's quiet voice in their ears. It felt like he was talking inside Aneisha's head. It felt odd, but also weirdly sexy. At least it felt like that to her. She doubted it had the same effect on Oscar and Ilya. She struggled to refocus. Tom didn't sound happy. "Guys, I've got some news. Not good news," said Tom. "Dan and Keri were abducted a few minutes ago. Everyone's on alert. We need you guys to keep your eyes open," he added. They heard some murmuring in the background as Tom was apparently conferring with someone else. "Erm, just so you know, Dan was injured," he paused. "We need to find them guys," he said finally in a very subdued tone.

There was a moment's silence. Aneisha watched the two older agents faces freeze for a second before they set their expressions back to neutral. She had to admire the two. They really could put on an act. "They said they were expecting a couple of people today," said Aneisha thoughtfully. "They might be here. Have you been able to see much of the building ?" she asked.

Oscar looked at Aneisha thoughtfully. He admired her ability to keep professional in the circumstances. He wondered if he would have been able to do the same at her age. "We haven't been able to get far. I waited until the toilets were being cleaned yesterday and used that as an excuse to search the building. I got turned back from a corridor beyond where the catering area is," Oscar told the others.

"I also have tried pretending to be lost," explained Ilya. "I came to a door with a keycode which I could not go through. It was towards the back of the building. I have been thinking about how much of this building we have been able to see and I think that the rest of the building must be two times the size of the building we have already accessed," said Ilya.

"That's a lot of building," said Oscar.

"It could be computer halls and offices," whispered Tom's voice in their ears.

Aneisha wrapped her legs around one another. It was sooooo dreamy hearing his voice in her head. Seriously ! She needed to concentrate. Oscar was giving her a funny look.

"It's a weird sensation isn't it ?" asked Oscar with a gentle smile.

"Mmmm !" agreed Aneisha, glad that he was misinterpreting her reaction.

"What was that ?" asked Tom's voice.

"I do not think it can all be computers and offices," said Ilya. "It is too much space."

"I agree," said Oscar. "We need to try to penetrate those areas. It's possible that Dan and Keri are there."

"We can't do it now," said Aneisha. "We would be seen straight away."

"If you bring me your passcards I might be able to get you better access privileges once the building has been vacated," murmured Tom's voice.

"You mean you might be able to get us in after dark ?" asked Oscar.

"Er yeah. That's what I said wasn't it ?" asked Tom's voice.

Aneisha rolled her eyes at Oscar and Ilya grinned. "Okay, let's spread out and see if we can find work out the layout of this place," suggested Oscar. "Well, it was lovely speaking to you again Molly !" said Oscar more loudly. "I hope the next assignment goes well for you," he added, standing up and kissing Aneisha on the cheek.

"Oh, and you too !" said Aneisha, gushing a little. "Break a leg !" she added, waving the two boys goodbye.

oooxxxxoooooo

Dan woke up feeling groggy and sore. His leg was throbbing painfully. He lifted his head and felt a wave of dizziness come over him. He sensed someone brushing up against where he was lying. "Dan ? It's Okay. How are you feeling ?" asked Keri's concerned voice.

"Huh ? What happened?" asked Dan.

"We thought an MI9 ambulance had come for you, but they weren't MI9," explained Keri, her words coming out in a rush. "These guys hit me and Carrie with sleep darts. The next thing I woke up in here and after a bit they carried you in. They got the knife out of your leg and bandaged it up," she said.

"What about Carrie ?" asked Dan, still feeling confused.

Keri shrugged. "No sign," said Keri simply.

Dan ran his hand down his right thigh and found his trousers were gone and there was a bandage tightly wrapped around his leg. He wanted to lift his head and look at it, but couldn't find the energy. His head seemed to weigh like lead. He turned his head and looked directly at Keri. She winced.

"What ?" asked Dan.

"You look like a ghost," said Keri faintly.

"Thanks," said Dan.

"Sorry. It's just, well, you're not normally like this," explained Keri. She looked shaken and a little upset.

Dan reached out his hand and touched hers. "It's alright. It's probably just loss of blood. I'll be right as rain in a day or so," he said. "We'll be kicking butt again in no time," he said with a smile. It wasn't much of a smile. He was so, so tired. His head sank back into a couple of pillows.

"They said you should get plenty to drink," said Keri. "I'll get you a cup," she offered. Keri returned after a moment with a plastic cup of water. She lifted his head for him so he could get some gulps of water. He hadn't realised how thirsty he was. He soon drained the cup. "More ?" asked Keri. Dan nodded. She repeated the procedure two more times. Dan felt a bit better after the third cup.

"Thanks," Dan whispered. "Any way you can get out of here ?" he asked her.

"You mean 'we can get out' don't you ?" asked Keri.

Dan shook his head. "I'm not going anywhere for a while. You could do it though," he suggested. "You don't have to stay here."

"I don't think I'm going to be strolling out of here any time soon," said Keri resignedly. "I've had a good look round believe me. This place is solid. We're going to need help."

"They'll be coming soon," said Dan quietly.

Keri watched him as he drifted off to sleep. "I hope so," whispered Keri. "I'm not going without you," she added when she knew he wouldn't hear.


	13. Chapter 13

**The teams have been divided up to investigate Perfect Match. Get ready, get set.**

"_I don't think I'm going to be strolling out of here any time soon," said Keri resignedly. "I've had a good look round believe me. This place is solid. We're going to need help."_

"_They'll be coming soon," said Dan quietly._

_Keri watched him as he drifted off to sleep. "I hope so," whispered Keri. "I'm not going without you," she added when she knew he wouldn't hear._

In the late afternoon that day, Tom was sitting at a computer terminal trying to hack into the security passes. They were quite complex. Most computer passes simply had a unique code. That code would match a list of places which the user was allowed to access and these would be stored on a computer at the place where they worked. This passcard had a microchip which contained some information of its own. Naturally, it was encrypted and Tom was trying to break into the code. It was more difficult than he had expected and he was getting frustrated. Frustration with technical issues was not something Tom normally felt. Normally he could stroll through any problem. With enough time, he could work out anything. The problem of course was that he didn't have an endless amount of time to work it out. He might only have a very short amount of time before something terrible happened to his friends. Keri and Dan were depending on him. "Oh come on !" he groaned, slapping the side of the screen.

"You Okay Tom ?" asked Rose's calm voice.

"What ? Oh yeah, fine," Tom lied feeling embarrassed.

Rose noticed the beads of sweat on Tom's forehead and could tell that he was feeling the pressure. It wasn't just the field agents who felt the heat when the going got tough. She knew that he was feeling responsible for his friends and was genuinely worried about them. They were a close-knit team. They were a lot like her, Carrie and Oscar when they had worked in MI High. Now they didn't work together as often as they used to, but when they did, they slotted together effortlessly. Ilya had fitted in as a friend with little effort, but he didn't know Rose and Carrie as well as Oscar did.

"Would Dan be getting into a panic do you think ?" she asked Tom.

"No. No way !" said Tom with a short laugh. "Keri will be winding up Dan, and he'll be trying to boyscout his way out as usual," he said. "Only usually he doesn't have a knife sticking out of his leg," he said, his voice fading away. Tom felt tears pricking at the backs of his eyes. This was no time to cry ! What was he thinking ? He had to get them out of there, not sit here feeling sorry for himself. Tom rubbed furiously at his eyes. "Oh why can't I get into this code !" he shouted.

"Maybe I can help," suggested Rose calmly. "Tell me what you've tried so far," she instructed him.

Tom started to run through all his attempts to break into the code. As he listed each in turn his tone of voice lowered and he started to feel more calm. As usual he had taken a logical series of approaches and simply explaining them to someone else helped him to get back into a logical mindset. "And that's where I'm stuck," he said finally. "I thought one of them would work."

"Well, I can suggest a few more and we could ask Oscar to help," suggested Rose. Her voice was level and calm and it soothed Tom even further. Of course, all he had to do was think about it. It was simply a matter of finding the right key.

"Oscar can help ?" asked Tom suddenly. "I didn't know he was technical too."

"Oh Oscar is pretty good on encryption and coding methods too," said Rose. "He has occasionally beaten me to the solution. Not often mind you," she added hurriedly. Tom couldn't help a small smile to himself. Obviously, Rose didn't like being beaten at anything either. "I've got a few suggestions first," she added.

The two of them worked together for a little longer and then Rose asked Oscar to join them. Oscar and Ilya turned up together and Oscar came up with a few more suggestions which Tom hadn't thought of. Tom was impressed. He had assumed that Oscar was only an undercover and language specialist. Even Ilya could think of a few ideas to help them. Finally they made their breakthrough and Tom was able to decode the microchip. "OK, what do we want ?" Tom asked.

"We want access to everything," said Ilya.

"I have to give you an identity which will give you access to everything," said Tom. "This thing seems to contain your identity. Who do you want to be ?" he asked.

"I could be Zoltan," said Aneisha, walking into the room. Tom turned round and she smiled at him. He smiled back. "He seems to be pretty senior," she said. Tom took Aneisha's pass and gave her Zoltan's identity.

"What about Oscar and Ilya ?" asked Tom.

"Hey, and what about Carrie ?" asked a voice Tom wasn't familiar with.

"Carrie !" yelped Oscar, leaping out of his seat and running to hug the small, dark skinned young woman who had just walked into the room. "Are you Okay ?" asked Oscar, pulling back from the hug. "I heard you got darted," he said, sounding worried. Carrie had a big smile on her face which seemed to light up the room.

"I'm just fine," she said. "I want to kick some butt. Can you get me into this place ?" she asked. "Hi Rose ! Hi Ilya !" she added. She looked at Tom. "Have we met ?" she asked him.

"This is Tom. He works with the current MI High team," said Rose. "This is Carrie, who was the other member of our MI High team," she explained to Tom. "She's our resident gymnast and combat expert."

"Oh, Dan would love to meet you," said Tom, faltering. "Well, normally," he said, his face falling.

"We've met," said Carrie. "Sorry about the knife," she said, looking upset. "I was supposed to rescue them. Some rescue !" she added bitterly.

Oscar slapped his hand on to Tom's shoulder. "Yes, Dan will enjoy meeting Carrie again," he said confidently. "Hopefully tonight." He gave Tom some names to programme up the rest of the identity cards.

"I'm Matthew Sweetman ?" asked Carrie disbelievingly.

"Yes. You might need a disguise," said Ilya with a mischievous grin. "He has a moustache," he added.

"Ilya !" Oscar complained to his friend, although he couldn't help laughing too. Talking to Carrie he said, "Hopefully, nobody will be seeing us. We need to find the others and get out of there quickly."

"And while you're there, you can find out a bit more about Perfect Match," said Stella, walking into the room.

"Chief Agent Knight !" said Rose. "You're still here."

"Yes of course," said Stella. Frank followed her in. He looked worried and tired. "Your priority of course is to retrieve Keri and Dan, but since this will probably blow our cover for investigating the organisation, I would appreciate whatever evidence you can find to explain what this organisation is trying to achieve. There is obviously a criminal element and we need to understand exactly what it is," she added. "It seems they plan to replace Zac Zucchero at least with an impersonator. We need to know why and who or what organisation is driving this activity. Do you have a way in yet ?" she asked in a businesslike manner.

"Tom has programmed access cards for us," said Rose. "They should enable everyone to access the building. We don't know how far these identities will get them though," she added. "We're hoping they'll get them far enough."

"Good work Tom," said Stella. "You'd better get yourselves kitted out," she ordered the others. "Frank, why don't you help get everyone their equipment," she suggested. Frank and the others left the room.

"Keeping Frank busy ?" Rose asked. "He's looking worried," she added.

"Frank always worries about his teams," said Stella. "We've never lost anyone from the MI High teams. I don't plan to start now," she said crisply. Rose guessed that these words were largely for Tom's benefit. She watched his shoulders stiffen and guessed that Stella's words had done the job. Tom was all business now. He was planning to kick some technical butt.


	14. Chapter 14

**The teams have been divided up to investigate Perfect Match. Meet your maker.**

**For you Hazi. Your review made me laugh. Not sure about other 'Deri' stories sorry.**

"_Keeping Frank busy ?" Rose asked. "He's looking worried," she added._

"_Frank always worries about his teams," said Stella. "We've never lost anyone from the MI High teams. I don't plan to start now," she said crisply. Rose guessed that these words were largely for Tom's benefit. She watched his shoulders stiffen and guessed that Stella's words had done the job. Tom was all business now. He was planning to kick some technical butt._

Dan woke again, feeling a little better. He turned his head around. Keri was sitting opposite him, eating from a tray. "Hey, you're awake !" she said, brightening up. "You look better," she said, not sounding very convincing.

"I guess I had some way to go," said Dan dryly. This earned him a small smile.

"You want some food ?" asked Keri. "Oh, and you need to take these," she said, waving a small plastic cup with a couple of tablets inside. "Antibiotics. You need them for your leg, they said," she added, peering into the cup. "I guess they were telling the truth," she added dubiously.

Dan inched himself upright and leaned against the end of his bed. "We might as well assume so. They've gone to some effort to keep me alive. It would be pretty odd to kill me off now," he said. He looked across at the second tray of food. He realised that there was no way he could walk over there and pick it up.

"Oh, sorry !" said Keri. She carried the tray over and put is on his knee, then fetched him a drink of water. "Here," she said, handing him the cup and the tablets. "You'd better take them."

"Thanks Keri," said Dan. "Sorry to be a pain."

"You're not !" said Keri quickly, then looking back down at her knees. She watched out of the corner of her eye as Dan swallowed the two tablets. Although she had no idea if they were really antibiotics or not, it felt important that Dan took them. She wanted him to get better. She had no idea how long they were going to be kept alive, or what these people wanted with them. She only knew that she really needed Dan with her. The thought of being locked up alone in here scared her. Being locked up reminded her too much of KORPS.

Dan managed to eat half of his food and then gave up. "You full ?" asked Keri curiously. She had been starving and had demolished her food.

"Yeah," said Dan wearily. In truth he was too tired to eat any more. All he wanted to do was sleep. He felt like he could sleep for days. He guessed that this wasn't going to be an option in their current situation.

The door to their room opened and three men came in. One was carrying a stun stick. He glanced at Dan and then pointed the stick at Keri. One of the other men retrieved the trays of food from them both before taking them out of the room. After a few seconds he returned and the two men stood looking at Dan. "He's not going to walk," said one of the men. "What'll we do ?" he asked.

"Get the chair," said the other man. The guy left the room and returned pushing a wheelchair. "Get in !" the man ordered Dan. Dan tried to pull himself over to the side of the bed. "Oh just grab him," said the man impatiently. The two men grabbed one of Dan's arms each and hauled him off the bed and dropped him into the wheelchair. Dan grunted with pain and Keri leapt to her feet.

"Get off him ! You don't need to do that !" she shouted. The thug with the stun stick waved it at her threateningly.

"K.. ! Tanya !" grunted Dan. "No don't Tanya. It's Okay. You can't do anything," he said, kicking himself for forgetting Keri's cover name for a second. "Leave her alone !" he hissed to the men.

The men grinned nastily and stepped back from Keri. "Take him to the lab," ordered one of the men. "You don't need to tie him up. He isn't going anywhere," he added, and they wheeled him out of the room. Keri watched him go with a sinking feeling in her gut. Once the door closed behind the goon with the stun stick she kicked the leg of her bed, earning her a bruised toe and not much else. She hopped around angrily for a minute and then flopped on to her bed, staring at Dan's now empty bed. Keri dropped her head into her hands. What was going on here ? This didn't feel like KORPS. Nobody was wearing KORPS insignia and boy did those people love insignia !

xxxooooooxxxxxo

Dan sat as still as he could in the wheelchair, waiting for the throbbing in his leg to subside. They had given him antibiotics, but a painkiller wouldn't hurt would it ? Wouldn't hurt ? Ha ! A half smile lifted his upper lip. "What have you got to smile about ?" snarled one of the men, grabbing his hair and pulling his head back. "You're going to meet your maker mate !" laughed the man, dropping Dan's head. The others laughed loudly, but stopped when they came to a door. A passcard was waved in front of a keypad and the door swooshed open.

The men pushed Dan's chair into the centre of the room and stopped suddenly. "Leave him ! We'll take it from here," said a woman's voice. Dan looked around him nervously. He was in a stark, white room filled with various bits of equipment. What was this place ? A tall, slender woman with white hair, white skin and pink eyes behind thick spectacles walked up to him, glancing at an electronic tablet in her hand. "Zac Zucchero," she said to herself before staring hard at Dan. Dan felt a sweat breaking out on his forehead. Would she know ? "So, you do not look like your picture," said the woman.

"Yeah, well we were lying low. MI9 had been showing a bit too much interest," said Dan. He wished he didn't sound quite so weak. He cleared his throat in an effort to sound less feeble. "We changed our appearances," he added, looking away from the woman. She was making him nervous.

"Hm ! No matter. The underlying structure should be the same," said the woman. "Put him on the couch," she instructed. Hands grabbed Dan's chair and wheeled him over to a hospital style couch. He was lifted out of the chair and on to the bed, but much more gently than he had been taken from his and Keri's cell. Never-the-less, his leg was jarred and he couldn't help wincing at the sharp pain running up his leg. "Carefully please. We can't afford to have too much damage," ordered the woman. Dan sank back against the cushioning of the couch and tried to steel himself for what was to come. Two men wearing white hospital type outfits strapped his wrists to the sides of the bed. "I think that will do," said the woman. "He is not strong. Take the samples !" ordered the woman.

The men wired Dan up to monitors and then fitted a cannula into his wrist. They started taking blood samples. After the sixth, Dan started to wonder if he was going to have any blood left by the time they finished. He was starting to feel light-headed again. A beeping noise started behind his head. "That will do. His blood pressure is starting to drop again. Take the other samples," ordered the woman.

The men cleared away the tubes of blood and one put on fresh gloves and using a pair of tweezers started pulling individual hairs from Dan's head. It hurt a surprising amount. He guessed they were after DNA samples. "Obviously we will want to access your DNA controlled bank accounts," said the woman, smiling down at him.

Dan smiled to himself. "Yeah, good luck with that," he thought to himself. His DNA wasn't going to open anything of Zac Zucchero's. Then the thought hit him. What would happen if they tried to use his DNA while he and Keri were still here ? Then he decided that they would probably be got rid of long before that. Why did he have to think that ? This wasn't fair on Keri. Surely she had suffered enough.

"Did I say something amusing ?" demanded the woman staring at him hard. Dan froze and shook his head. What was he thinking ? He was supposed to be undercover here. A wave of dizziness swept over him and his eyelids drooped. "That will do, thankyou !" the woman ordered. "Strap him down and we will take the retina scan," she said.

The men strapped Dan firmly to the bed by his shoulders and waist before raising the top half of the bed. Once he was sitting upright they pushed a machine up to his face and pushed his chin on to a strap at the front. "Open your eyes and you will not suffer," ordered the woman. Dan felt tired and dizzy. His eyelids were drooping again. "Awake I said !" snapped the woman and Dan felt someone squeeze his sore leg. He groaned in pain, opening his eyes wide. "That's better," she said. There was a clicking and whirring noise from the machinery. After what seemed like an eternity, but was probably only a few seconds the noise stopped and his leg was released. Dan whimpered as the machine was pulled away from his face. "Nearly done," said the woman. "The scanner !" ordered the woman. One of the men lowered the bed down flat again and another machine was pulled over the bed. "There will be a bright light. You should close your eyes and keep perfectly still," instructed the woman. Dan had no problem with that instruction. His eyes were barely shut when he sensed blinding light through his closed eyelids. Lights played on to his face for an age. "Good. All done. Take him back," ordered the woman.

Dan was put back in the wheelchair and taken back to the cell with Keri. The men dumped him on his bed. He heard a muffled cry followed by Keri calling out, "Zac ! Oh God Zac !" as the men left the room. Keri ran over to Dan's side and he felt her lifting his head slightly. "Dan ? What did they do to you ?" whispered Keri. She sounded really worried.

Dan felt exhausted. "Just tests and scans," he managed to whisper. Keri wrapped her arm around his shoulder, hugging him close. "It's Okay," whispered Dan. "We'll be Okay." His eyes closed and he drifted off into an exhausted sleep. Keri kept hugging him close, angrily wiping tears from her eyes. She was going to get them for this. They were going to pay, big time !


	15. Chapter 15

**The teams have been divided up to investigate Perfect Match. Will the real Zac please step forward ?**

**Someone asked if I have an update schedule. Nope, it's random. If I've had time to write anything, I update.**

"_Dan ? What did they do to you ?" whispered Keri. She sounded really worried. _

_Dan felt exhausted. "Just tests and scans," he managed to whisper. Keri wrapped her arm around his shoulder, hugging him close. "It's Okay," whispered Dan. "We'll be Okay." His eyes closed and he drifted off into an exhausted sleep. Keri kept hugging him close, angrily wiping tears from her eyes. She was going to get them for this. They were going to pay, big time !_

Keri had reluctantly laid Dan back on his pillows to sleep, but even as she sat on her own bed she couldn't take her eyes off him. She would admit to no one that he was pretty easy on the eye. She loved to tease him and wind him up. He took things so seriously. This whole spy thing was scary. Dan seemed to be Mr. Ultra-Professional the whole time. Keri dealt with the fear and the tension by making it seem like fun. Dan clearly didn't get it. Aneisha got it. She played along with Keri. Tom was just Tom. He loved to play games anyway.

Why was she so obsessed with this boy ? Okay, she knew why. It was those sad eyes. When he thought nobody was looking, when nobody was relying on him, his eyes just looked so sad. It was also the way he took any opportunity to be on his own. He didn't exactly avoid company, especially Tom, Keri and Aneisha's, he just didn't come looking for it. The fact that he never talked about why he was sad also made it so tantalising. The others talked about this girl called Zoe, who was apparently her clone, but Dan never mentioned her. Keri guessed it was all about Zoe. He wasn't shy exactly. He could hold his own in company. It was more like he was reserved. Yes, that was the word: reserved.

Keri suddenly realised that a pair of tired, blue eyes were looking back at her in puzzlement. "Hm ? Oh, you're awake !" she said in confusion. "Oh, er, do you want a drink of water ?" she asked, turning to hide her blushes. When she turned back to him with the cup he was still frowning. "Are you feeling better ?" she asked

"Yeah, bit better," said Dan huskily. He pulled himself upright and took the cup, draining it quickly. Keri got him another and he drank it gratefully. "Thanks Keri," he said, his voice returning to normal.

"What did they do ?" asked Keri, partly out of genuine curiosity, but also to divert attention from her embarrassment. Seriously, she had to let him wake up with her staring at him like some kind of psycho stalker !

"I think they were after DNA samples. They took strands of hair and loads of blood. That was the main problem," said Dan ruefully. "They scanned my retinas and my face too. I think they want to be able to access different security systems set up with Zac's biometrics," he added.

"Oh, well that won't get them very far," said Keri, laughing. She stopped laughing suddenly. "Oh !" she said.

"Yes. Oh !" said Dan heavily.

"I wonder when they're going to try to use them," said Keri tensely. "As soon as they do, they'll realise you're not you, if you know what I mean," she said confusedly.

There was a click from the door and it swung open. Two men came in, one carrying the stun stick. "You !" said one of the men, crooking his finger at Keri. The guy glanced at Dan and smirked with contempt. "Time to meet your maker Miss Zucchero," he said, laughing. Dan frowned. They had said that to him as well. It must mean something.

"Go on Tanya," Dan said encouragingly. "They don't hurt you," he added gently. Keri took one last look at him and left the room with the two men. Once the door was shut, Dan frowned and muttered, "Or I'll kill them myself."

Keri soon found herself strapped quite tightly to a medical type of couch. She didn't feel too scared since Dan had already warned her what was going to happen. She wasn't a fan of needles, after having had more than a few stuck into her while growing up in KORPS. She could see why Dan had been such a mess after they'd finished taking her blood samples. They hadn't left him with much ! The retina scan and facial scans were a breeze. Once they were finished, she expected to be returned to their cell, but instead, the woman in charge directed the orderlies to tie Keri to a chair.

"Well Tanya, thankyou for your cooperation," said the medical woman, blinking at her through thick glasses and smiling faintly. "While you are here, we would like to see your reaction to some of our earlier work," she said, clicking her fingers at the male orderlies. "Bring him in," she ordered.

A door at the side of the room opened and someone walked in. It was Dan ! He was walking ! Keri stared in astonishment. "What ? Your leg !" she exclaimed. "How did you get better so soon ?" she demanded. Then she stared into Dan's eyes. Something was wrong. Keri frowned as she returned Dan's gaze. "Is something wrong with your eyes ?" she asked. Dan appeared to be blinking rapidly.

"You'll get used to the contacts," said the white-haired woman.

"Yeah, I guess so. They're a bit hard. Can you make them any softer ?" asked Dan, but not in Dan's voice.

"Who are you ?" demanded Keri. "What have you done with ... my brother ?" she demanded. She hoped they hadn't noticed the moment's hesitation when she had nearly said 'Dan'.

"Ah, yes, the voice," said the woman. "We'll get some voice recordings for you. Just the key words. Then you'll be all set I think," she said, smiling at the Dan look-alike. "Take her back !" she instructed the orderlies, pointing at Keri.

Keri was untied from her chair and stood up. Glancing across at the imposter she smirked. "Too short !" she said contemptuously.

"What ?" asked the blonde woman sharply.

"He is, like, way too short !" said Keri with a short laugh. "He'll be fine so long as nobody stands up !" she said derisively.

"We didn't measure his height," said the woman thoughtfully, staring at the imposter. "Thankyou for you help Miss Zucchero," she said, waving her hand. Keri was pulled out of the room and taken back to their cell.

As the door closed behind their captors, Keri turned and looked at Dan. "You'll never guess who I just saw !" she said grinning.

"Who ?" asked Dan, puzzled by her sudden high spirits. She had freaked him out a bit earlier, staring at him like he'd just died or something.

"You ! Well, not you, obviously. But boy, did he look like you !" prattled Keri. "Way too short to be you, but boy he had your face and your eyes and he really, really looked like you," she finished.

Dan tried to catch up with the stream of consciousness which had just poured out of Keri's mouth. "Someone who looked like me ?" he asked.

"Yeah ! I am not kidding. His face was an absolute copy of you," said Keri. "I thought it was you until he spoke. Didn't sound anything like you. Oh and he was way too short too. I didn't realise until I stood up. I was taller than him, would you believe ?"

Again, it took Dan a minute to process everything that Keri had just said. "You mean, they've made an imposter, for Zac Zucchero ?" he asked.

"Erm, yes, I guess they have," said Keri more thoughtfully. "And they have your DNA too. They've made someone to pretend to be you. Only they think you're Zac Zucchero. This is seriously weird !" she added, screwing her face up.

"So I guess they're about to make someone to be your imposter," said Dan thoughtfully. "Well, supposedly Tanya Zucchero," he added. "That's why they said, to come and meet our maker," he said with half a smile.

"Eeeeuw ! That's creepy !" complained Keri. Dan gave her a funny look. How did she think he felt ? "Oh, sorry ! I guess you're already pretty creeped out," realised Keri.

"The problem is, once they have successfully copied us, they don't need us any more," pointed out Dan.

"That's if they don't realise we're fakes first," said Keri. "We really need to get out of here," said Keri.


	16. Chapter 16

**The teams have been divided up to investigate Perfect Match. Here come the cavalry ! Sorry for a few days without updates. Been too busy eating chocolate obviously :)**

"_The problem is, once they have successfully copied us, they don't need us any more," pointed out Dan._

"_That's if they don't realise we're fakes first," said Keri. "We really need to get out of here," said Keri._

Aneisha, Carrie, Oscar and Ilya arrived in the street outside the Perfect Match building. Ilya pointed to the plans on his spy pod. "Lucky this is an old building," he said. "They could not get rid of all the old features," he added.

Carrie glanced over his upper arm. The top of her head only reached his shoulder. "That way," she said, pointing to a side street on the opposite side of the road. They all kept to the shadows and quietly crept up to the side of an empty building. "There !" said Carrie pointing to an old wooden hatch set into the ground. Oscar and Ilya bent down and Oscar pulled a tool from his black backpack. The two boys grunted as they tried to lever open the hatch. Finally they succeeded and the batch flew open. Carrie and Aneisha quickly grabbed the flying panels before they crashed into the ground.

"Thanks," whispered Oscar. "I think it must have just welded itself shut with dirt and stuff," he said as he quickly stuffed the jemmy back into his bag. Ilya was shining a torch down into the hole below. Oscar glanced down uncertainly. He had never really overcome his fear of the dark, although he coped much better with it now. "How deep is it ?" he asked, as Ilya shrugged and jumped into the hole. There was a slapping sound as his feet hit the ground.

"Not that deep," Ilya's voice echoed up from below.

"Ilya ! That is not funny !" hissed Oscar, as Carrie also jumped down into the hole. "Carrie !" complained Oscar. He looked up at Aneisha.

"You don't have to worry about me," said Aneisha holding up her hands. "You are so not going to catch me doing that !" she assured him.

Oscar grinned at her. "Glad there's someone round here with a bit of sense," he murmured. "Would you like me to drop you down ?" he asked. Aneisha nodded, and Oscar took her hands and slowly lowered her down, until Carrie told him to let go. Oscar shone his torch down and then lowered himself from the edge of the hatch before dropping. "You two are definitely related !" he hissed at a grinning Carrie and Ilya. "Nutters the pair of you !"

"You've got to admit we've have style," said Carrie laughing. Oscar smiled and shook his head.

"OK boss, which way now ?" asked Ilya jokingly.

"I am not the boss," said Oscar wearily.

"No I am, and don't you forget it !" came Rose's voice into their earpieces.

Aneisha saw Ilya's face twist up with desire and had to stifle a giggle. Obviously Rose's voice going right into Ilya's head had the same effect as Tom's voice going into hers. "You all right Ilya ?" asked Oscar sounding puzzled. "You look like you're constipated or something," he said.

Ilya looked a little annoyed. "No, I am fine. Fine ! Now, shall we go before the sun rises once again ?" he asked, stomping off down a tunnel.

"The other way Ilya," came Rose's calm voice into their ears.

"I knew that !" muttered Ilya as he passed them going back in the opposite direction. The others followed.

"There should be an old access tunnel on your right near where you are now," said Rose.

"It's probably blocked off," said Tom. "It's at least a hundred years old," he added.

"I can't see anything," said Carrie. She started gently tapping the walls and the others did the same. "Wait ! What does this sound like to you ?" asked Carrie, tapping on some bricks. The sound was deeper. "I think it's hollow, don't you ?" she asked.

"Are you standing next to it now ?" asked Rose.

"Yes," said Carrie.

There was the sound of muffled discussion over the comms channel. "Yep, that must be it," said Tom's voice. "It's in roughly the right place. These plans are very old, so they might not have the right grid references on them," he explained.

Oscar pulled out his jemmy again and started hacking at the mortar between the old bricks. The cement was really hard and he wasn't making much progress, but bits of brick started to chip off and fall around their feet. "Oscar, why don't he just hack at the bricks," suggested Aneisha. "They seem to be weaker than the cement." Oscar did as she suggested, and sure enough the old bricks had become soft with age and could be quite easily chipped away. Ilya joined in and soon the two had cleared a sizeable hole big enough for them all to crawl through one at a time. Behind the wall was an empty space the size of a tunnel.

Carrie shone her torch through the gap. "Stairs," she said. "Come on. We need to get moving. We don't know what's happening to Dan and Keri," she reminded them. Everyone instantly got serious and Oscar and Ilya stowed away their equipment.

Carrie led the way through the tunnel and up the stairs. At the top of the stairs was an old metal door. Carrie pressed her spy pod against the door. "All quiet," she reported. Aneisha pulled a cutter from her bag and pulling on a mask, cut a larger hole in the door. The all crept through. They were now standing in what looked like an underground utility room filled with pipes and humming electrical equipment.

"There should be a door to your right," said Rose's voice. "Then we don't have any more information, sorry," she added.

"It's Okay. Once we're in the main building, we should be able to find our way around," said Oscar.

They were soon walking quietly through the deserted corridors of the building. The main lights were turned off and only emergency lighting gave off a faint glow to light their way. Their eyes had adjusted to the near darkness so they had no difficulty in seeing where they were going. "Are we inside the restricted area yet ?" asked Carrie.

"I don't think so. We haven't passed any secure locks yet," said Oscar. Just as he finished speaking they came to a door with a secure pass lock on the side. "Spoke too soon," said Oscar lightly. "Everyone ready ?" he asked, looking round. The others nodded tensely.

Ilya held up his Spy pod and scanned the door. "I cannot scan through the door. It has some kind of shielding," he reported, before snapping his Spy pod shut again. Oscar shrugged and ran his passcard over the card reader. The door softly clicked open. Ilya carefully pushed the door open on to a brightly lit corridor on the other side. He glanced up and down the corridor then waved everyone through. They all blinked in the bright light. "This part of the building is brightly lit," reported Ilya for the benefit of Tom and Rose.

"Can you put on the camera Aneisha ?" asked Tom. She took out the tiny camera and attached it to her clothes. "Thanks," said Tom. "We're receiving now."

"Try to your right," suggested Rose. "That should take you deeper into the rear of the building."

They did as Rose suggested, running quietly through the empty corridors. At last they heard voices. A man and a woman came out of a door and walked off down a corridor ahead. "The likeness is excellent. There's some concern about the height apparently. I thought that would have been considered a little earlier !" the man was saying in annoyance.

They all froze until the voices had receded out of earshot. "That was Zoltan !" whispered Aneisha. Oscar pointed to the door the people had come out of and the others nodded. The door had a secure code. Aneisha's passcard got them in. "Makes sense. I'm supposed to be Zoltan," she muttered. As they door shut behind them, Aneisha stopped in her tracks, staring ahead in surprise, then grinning in delight.

"Dan !" said Carrie. "You're OK ! How's your leg ?" she asked in surprise.

Across the room from them, a perfectly healthy looking Dan stared in shock. "What ? Who are you ? Who's Dan," said Dan, backing slowly away from them.


	17. Chapter 17

**The teams have been divided up to investigate Perfect Match. Meet the makers.**

"_Dan !" said Carrie. "You're OK ! How's your leg ?" she asked in surprise._

_Across the room from them, a perfectly healthy looking Dan stared in shock. "What ? Who are you ? Who's Dan," said Dan, backing slowly away from them. _

"That's not Dan," said Aneisha.

"What ? That's the guy I met !" said Carrie.

"No it isn't. For a start where's the stab wound in his leg, and since when am I nearly as tall as Dan ?" snorted Aneisha derisively. "He's at least a head taller than me. I don't think he's shrunk while he's been here !"

"Who are you ? Molly, what are you doing with these people ? I'm calling security !" shouted the man who looked like Dan.

Oscar and Carrie dashed across the room and grabbed the man before he could reach for a phone receiver on the wall. "Get off me ! Help ! Fmhm !" the man shouted as Oscar clapped a hand over his mouth to stop him calling for help.

"He sounds nothing like him either," said Aneisha. Her face screwed up with confusion. "Wait, he sounds like Marco !"

"Who's Marco ?" asked Carrie.

"The guy I've been training to take on the role of Zac, oh !" said Aneisha. "Wow ! That is pretty good !" she said in wonder.

"You've trained this person to behave like Zac and now he looks like Zac," said Ilya for her.

"Yes. It must be," said Aneisha. "Only ..."

"Only, Zac is Dan," said Oscar quietly. He noticed that Marco, not Dan, was staring at them in realisation. "We can't let him go. He knows we're on to them," said Oscar.

"We need to find Dan and Keri," said Aneisha. "They're here somewhere. As soon as people realise we have Marco, they could do something to Dan and Keri." She stared hard at Marco. If you ignored his height, he looked exactly like Dan, apart from the eyes. There was something wrong with the eyes, and he kept blinking all the time.

"Where are they ?" Aneisha demanded of Marco. Marco made a muffled grunt and shook his head. "You don't know ?" she asked. Marco shook his head again. "Haven't you met them ?" she asked again. Once again Marco shook his head. Aneisha looked at the others. "I think we're on our own again," she said, looking depressed.

"What shall we do with this guy ?" asked Oscar.

"We could take him with us," suggested Aneisha. "Do you know your way around here ?" she asked Marco. He just shrugged and shook his head. "This is hopeless. I don't think he knows much," said Aneisha. "They don't seem to trust him."

"Neither do I," said Oscar, taking a gun-like device from his pocket and putting it against Marco's neck. It hissed and Marco slumped to the ground. "That should knock him out for a couple of hours," said Oscar, putting the injector back in his pocket. "We need to get moving. We're running out of time. Any suggestions Rose and Tom ?" he asked.

After a moment's silence, Tom's voice came over their comms. "There is an area with heavy shielding quite near you. That might be worth looking into," suggested Tom. "Turn left out of the door, then take the second door on your right," he said.

They pulled Marco to the side of the room behind a large bench and then did as Tom had instructed. This time when Aneisha swiped her card it beeped twice, but opened the door anyway. "Tom, it beeped twice," said Aneisha in a worried tone. "Any idea what that means ?" she asked him.

"Erm, could be some sort of error code," said Tom vaguely. "I'm guessing really. We don't know much about their security system," he admitted. "Sorry."

"Don't worry. We'll carry on anyway," said Oscar. "Wow ! What is this place ?" he asked staring around them. The room had medical style benches, weird scanning devices and unrecognisable equipment.

"Aneisha, can you focus on that big machine in the middle ?" asked Tom's voice. She did as he asked. "The controls please ?" he asked again. She looked over the console at the front of the machine so that her camera would give Tom a good view. "Hm, what do you think Rose ? " asked Tom. "Looks like some kind of printing device," he said.

"Yes, some kind of printer. It has a control for 'scan input'," said Rose. "You say that guy Marco looked exactly like Dan ?" she asked.

"Yes !" said Aneisha and Tom together.

"Well, suppose they printed Dan's face on to the surface of Marco's," said Rose.

"Weird !" said Aneisha after silence from everyone.

They all froze on hearing a commotion at the door. "Come on, we need to hide !" hissed Oscar. They all looked around in a panic. Aneisha and Carrie took cover behind a screen at the far end of the room and Oscar and Ilya dived into a cupboard, leaving the door slightly ajar so they could see.

"There's no reason why my keycard shouldn't let me in !" complained a man loudly.

"Does it really matter. We're in aren't we ?" asked an exasperated woman's voice.

"It's Zoltan," whispered Aneisha to Carrie. "He's my boss for coaching Marco," she explained.

"Zoltan, I don't think your passcard is our priority at the moment," said the woman sounding annoyed. "What are we going to do about the Zuccheros ?" she asked. "There's the height issue to resolve."

Zoltan ran his hands through his hair. "I don't get it. We got height and weight measurements before Marco was selected for the mission. I can't believe they got the height so badly wrong. It's like Zucchero's grown 20 centimetres since he was measured !" he complained. Aneisha couldn't help looking at Carrie and they both stifled a giggle. "It didn't help that he'd dyed his hair blonde either. Who would have guessed it ?"

"Yes, he looks nothing like himself," agreed the woman. "So, do we need to do anything ?" she asked. "We have all the biometric data needed to gain access to their accounts and start running their operations in their place. We should be able to take complete control. If anyone questions their identities we shall simply eliminate them. It's what the Zucchero's would have done. That is the beauty of stealing the identities of criminals after all," she said smiling grimly.

"Yes, I think you're right. We just need to copy Tanya and we're done. We can get rid of them. Make sure the bodies disappear obviously," said Zoltan thoughtfully.

"We'll copy her tomorrow," said the woman, looking over some information on the screen of the printing machine. "The scan data has already been loaded. We'll dispose of the Zuccheros once she's been copied."

"Right, I'm going to find out what's going on with my passcard," said Zoltan, reaching for a phone on the wall. The woman rolled her eyes and huffed.

"Security ? Yes, this is Zoltan. My passcard refused me access to the copying room," complained Zoltan. "What ? That's ridiculous !" he shouted. "How could I already be in here. I was standing at the door trying to get in ! What ? At what time ?" he demanded. He turned to the woman looking shocked. "Security say that the system records show I was already in the room, so the card wouldn't let me in again," he said mystified. "What ?" he said into the phone. "And, they want to know if I teleported over from the hospitality area because I made it in three seconds flat," he muttered in bafflement.

Aneisha and Carrie looked at one another, each holding their breath.


	18. Chapter 18

**The teams have been divided up to investigate Perfect Match. Searches and plans.**

"_Security say that the system records show I was already in the room, so the card wouldn't let me in again," he said mystified. "What ?" he said into the phone. "And, they want to know if I teleported over from the hospitality area because I made it in three seconds flat," he muttered in bafflement._

_Aneisha and Carrie looked at one another, each holding their breath. _

Aneisha listened, horrified, to what Zoltan was saying. She had used her passcard, which said that she was Zoltan, to gain entry to this room. They had never considered the possibility that Zoltan would also be in the building at this time of night. Would he realise that someone was using his security clearance ? Aneisha crossed her fingers and toes and anything else she could think of to cross.

"This doesn't make sense," said Zoltan. He stared at the telephone receiver in his hand as if it was somehow at fault. He put the phone back up to his ear. "Well, clearly I wasn't in two places at once," he said thoughtfully. "Do you think the system has given someone else my security clearance ?" he asked. They could hear murmuring on his phone. "Unlikely you think ?" he said. "I'd like you to look into it. Find out if someone has got my security clearance. This could result in a serious breach of security. We don't want general day staff getting access to the rear of the building. We can't afford for anyone to find out what we're doing. Yes, see to it now," he ordered before putting the phone down. "Hm, definitely something wrong there. Well we can't sort it out from here. Let's go and get the insertion plan organised. Zac and Tanya have been out of circulation for over a day now. We can't afford to let it go on too long," he said.

"They went into hiding for over a week before they reappeared last time. There were even rumours circulating that MI9 had captured them," said the woman.

"Yes, and their associates were getting suspicious," warned Zoltan. "We don't want one of our imposters trying to maintain their cover and keep on top of threats and takeover plots. If these criminal networks think they've spotted a weakness, they'll be in there like a shot and all of our work will be wasted," he said. "We are taking over the Zucchero's business and nobody else !" he added. "Come on. We need to make sure we're maintaining some presence until we get those two out into the field. Let's use Zac's DNA to access some of their accounts." The two people left the room.

Aneisha and Carrie let out the big breaths they hadn't realised they were holding. Oscar and Ilya walked out into the room. "Rose and Tom, did you hear all of that ?" asked Oscar quietly.

"Got it all," said Rose briskly. "Well, it's clear now what Perfect Match are up to. They're not dealing with criminals. They're taking over from them !"

"We need to find all of the people they have got impersonating criminals," said Ilya. "Then MI9 can shut them down. They must have records in here somewhere," he said.

"Yes, but we need to get Dan and Keri out first," said Aneisha, looking worried. "He said they're going to use Dan's DNA to access the Zuccheros' accounts. They'll realise Dan isn't Zac," she said, her voice dropping to a hoarse whisper. "They're going to kill them ! We still have no idea where they are," she added, wanting to cry.

"Yes, of course. I am sorry Aneisha. I have not forgotten your friends," said Ilya gently. "But we must destroy this enterprise also," he added.

"Yes, of course, you're right," said Aneisha, but she still looked worried.

"We'll get them back Aneisha," said Rose gently.

Oscar glanced at his watch. "Marco will be waking up in an hour or so. That's how long we've got," he said, looking up at the others. "We have to find Dan and Keri first," he said. Carrie looked shyly across at the man who had once been her school friend. He had been the boy whose shirt was always half hanging out of his trousers, who didn't own a piece of clothing without stains on it, and who was still afraid of the dark. When did he get so grown up ? She realised that Oscar was looking at her curiously and she quickly moved her gaze, hoping he didn't see her blushes.

"Okay, well, let's not use Aneisha's passcard any more," suggested Carrie. "They'll be on to us if we keep using it."

"Good point," agreed Tom's voice. "We've got a suggestion about where you could try to find Dan and Keri," he added. They heard some muttering over their headsets. "Okay, this is a bit of a long shot, but we think it's worth a try," he said. "We're guessing they will have holding cells lower down in the building. We suggest you find some stairs and go down."

Oscar, Ilya, Carrie and Aneisha looked at one another and screwed up their faces. "Well, I don't have a better idea," said Oscar finally. The others shrugged their shoulders and carefully left the room, checking that the corridor was empty. After a short jog they came to doors leading on to stairs. They ran down and came on another brightly lit corridor. "Split up ?" asked Oscar. "We need to search quickly." The others agreed before Oscar and Carrie went one way, Ilya and Aneisha went another.

Xxxoooooxxxxxx

Unaware of events going on in the rest of the building, Dan and Keri were trying unsuccessfully to get some rest. The attendants had brought them some more food and medication for Dan. They had both looked for an opportunity to take the guards by surprise, but had been held off very successfully by the guard brandishing the stun stick. They knew full well that they couldn't escape if they were unconscious. Just a twitch from Keri had resulted in Dan having the stun stick thrust in his face theateningly. "Just try it missie !" snarled the thug holding the stick. Keri shrunk away.

When the door closed, Keri sank back on to her bed holding her head in her hands. "Aaargh ! We have to find a way out of here !" she groaned in frustration.

Dan swallowed his pills and lay on his bed. He was trying to stay calm, for Keri's sake, but in reality he was so exhausted he could barely think straight. His leg was throbbing and it made it difficult to concentrate on anything else. All he wanted to do was curl up and sleep. Maybe he wouldn't notice them killing him ? The only problem was that he wasn't prepared to sit here and wait for Keri to die. She deserved better. All those years in KORPS captivity had to be paid for. Zoe wasn't here for her. All she had right now was Dan and he'd never felt so useless. Suddenly he couldn't hold it back any more and he had to turn his head away to hide the tear of frustration that trickled unwanted from his eye. In an instant he realised he had failed even in hiding his fears when Keri's concerned face appeared above his.

"Dan ?" she asked gently.

"I'm s-so s-sorry," whispered Dan. He didn't dare speak out loud in case a sob escaped. "I've let you down," he said. "After everything you've been through. You don't deserve this," he broke off, closing his eyes and rubbing a hand over his face. He felt his hand gently being taken and held by Keri. He looked up at her in surprise.

"Dan," said Keri with a gentle smile. There was no mockery in her eyes and none of the mischievous glint when she teased him over his serious attitude to spying. "None of this is your fault. We both work for MI9 and MI9 sent us both on this mission. You are not responsible for me," she said firmly. He turned to her to explain how much he was responsible, how he had to look after everyone and how much he missed Zoe. When he rolled over to tell her all this the pain in his chest as he thought about Zoe equalled the stab of pain from his leg. He managed not to wince, but gripped Keri's hand hard.

Keri's heart melted to see Dan's face freeze with the effort of hiding his pain. His hand shook, holding hers tightly. She kept hold of his hand and waited for his pain to subside. Finally his eyes opened, blinking back tears. "Dan, it's OK. You can't be strong all the time. You'll have to let the rest of us take a turn," she said with a smile. She was pleased when she saw Dan's eyes focus fiercely on her face. She was a lot less pleased when she heard what he had to say.

"So, do you think you can get yourself out of here ?" Dan asked Keri.

"What ? Dan, I am not leaving you !" Keri protested.

"I can't run. I can't even walk. They are using me to control you. So long as we are together, you have no chance of getting out of here," said Dan.

"Dan, please ! Don't make me leave you !" Keri begged him.

"You have to," said Dan. "You're going to get out of that door the next time it opens, and you are going to run and not stop. Understood ?" he asked. "I don't care what they do and I don't care what you hear going on behind you. You are going to keep on running."


	19. Chapter 19

**The teams have been divided up to investigate Perfect Match. Escapes.**

"_Dan, please ! Don't make me leave you !" Keri begged him._

"_You have to," said Dan. "You're going to get out of that door the next time it opens, and you are going to run and not stop. Understood ?" he asked. "I don't care what they do and I don't care what you hear going on behind you. You are going to keep on running." _

"Promise me Keri," insisted Dan. "Promise me you'll get out of here. You can send MI9 back for me, but you have to get out first." He stared at her intently. "If you don't get out, neither of us has a chance."

Keri thought about what he'd said. "OK," she said quietly. "I'll do it, but I am getting MI9 in here, THE MINUTE I get out alright ?" she said fiercely, fighting back a tear. She was shaking with the effort of not fighting him. If she didn't get out, neither of them was going to get out. She had to do it, even if it killed her emotionally. "How are we going to do it ?" she asked.

Dan smiled a grim smile. "Let's see what food we have left shall we ?" he said.

Half an hour later, the guards came to collect the food trays. "Won't be doing this for much longer," muttered one of the men. "They'll be getting rid of them soon. Got what they want," he added. The others snorted in agreement. "Pity, I could get used to looking at her," he added with a smirk.

"Maybe you'll get a hand full when we take them out. Nobody will care then," suggested one of the others. They all sniggered at their own nasty thoughts.

The lead guard finally opened the lock and pushed the door open. Dan was sitting on the end of his bed nearest the door. The lead guard sneered at Dan and lifted the stun stick, pointing it at him, as he walked into the room. Suddenly the door slammed into his side, knocking him slightly off balance. As he fell, he heard the door banging behind him and the muffled shouts of his colleagues. The last thing he saw was Dan landing on top of him and smashing a fist into his face.

The two remaining guards quickly shoved the door open again and ran into the cell, the first of them holding another stun stick, ready to rescue their colleague. The first guard in the door got a quick glimpse of Dan crouching on the floor next to his unconscious colleague. Furiously, the first guard ran at him, not noticing the food tray which was now lying on the floor between them. The guard trod on the food tray which shot out from under his foot, making his leg shoot out from underneath him and he fell backwards to the floor. Before he hit the floor, Dan had grabbed the first guard's stun stick and stabbed at the second guard with it. The man twitched and shuddered before falling silent on the floor. Keri grabbed the second guard's stun stick and pulling the door open, stabbed at the remaining guard before he could run away. She grabbed the last man's unconscious body and dragged him inside the room.

"That's it. Now go !" hissed Dan. When Keri hesitated he brandished the stun stick. "I'll be alright," he said. "I've got this. Go quickly ! These guys might be missed soon." Keri pursed her lips and then nodded before dashing out into the corridor and running away as fast as she could, holding her stun stick tightly like a baton. Dan listened to the sound of her running footsteps disappearing in the distance and instantly felt lonely and vulnerable. He distracted himself by rearranging the heap of bodies on the floor. It took a while since he could only put weight on one leg, but he managed to use belts and ties to tie up the men, stringing their feet together and strapping one to Keri's bed. The door hung open slightly so he pushed it until it was almost closed. Then he shuffled across the floor on his bottom and picked up the food tray. Taking the remains of a sandwich he used the buttered bread to grease the bottom of the tray again, and reset it as a trap in front of the door. Then he pulled himself back up on to the bed. Breathing heavily, he clutched the stun stick in his hand and stared at the door, waiting.

Keri meanwhile was running desperately through empty corridors. She came to some stairs and ran up to the next floor. She had no idea where she was going, but at least it was far away from where she had started. Coming to a door she glanced out and set off down the corridor outside, hoping she was going towards an escape route. Dan was depending on her.

Xxx000000xxxxx

The two pairs of would-be rescuers were scouring underground corridors. Oscar and Carrie came to a corridor lined with identical doors, each numbered consecutively. Carrie noticed a very narrow band of light shining out of the door of one room at the far end of the corridor. She nudged Oscar's arm and pointed. He nodded his understanding and they crept down the corridor to the slightly open door. Taking a position on either side of the door, they looked at one another. Carrie silently counted down from three with her fingers. When she reached zero they both hurled themselves through the door in fighting poses.

Carrie barely had time to register what she saw, but her lightning reflexes kicked in and she reached out her arm to stop Oscar, "No !" she shouted. "It's .." before Oscar stepped on a food tray lying on the floor and one long leg shot out from under him. His flying arm caught Carrie and knocked her off her feet, so that she landed sprawled on top of Oscar on the floor.

"Oof," grunted Oscar as Carrie landed heavily on top of him.

Carrie was untangling herself from her position on top of Oscar when she heard an amused voice saying, "Well, it's nice to see you too, but I had no idea you guys were so close !" said Dan.

"That's no way to greet your rescuers Daniel Morgan !" complained Carrie, laughing in spite of herself. She stood up and helped Oscar up off the floor.

Oscar rubbed his back while pulling a face. "You sure you haven't put any weight on ?" he asked.

"Oooooh ! You are so going to pay for that later Oscar Cole !" squealed Carrie. She looked around her and took in the pile of semi-conscious guards. "Hm, I see you started without us," she commented. Then she suddenly looked alarmed. "Where's Keri ?" she asked.

"Escaping hopefully," said Dan. "I couldn't run, so she's escaping for both of us," he explained. "Didn't you see her ?" he asked.

Oscar and Carrie looked worried. "No. We haven't passed her. When did she go ?" asked Oscar.

Dan shrugged. "I'm not sure, sorry. I've got no watch," he explained.

"Rose, Tom, did you hear all that ?" asked Carrie.

"Yes, we heard. Aneisha and Ilya have you seen Keri ?" asked Rose.

"No sign of her," reported Aneisha. "How's Dan ?" she asked.

"Not very mobile," said Oscar looking at Dan's bandaged leg. He looked over to a mumbling and wriggling guard in the corner of the room and said, "We need to get moving. They'll be missed soon. Can you walk at all Dan ?" he asked.

"I'll give it a go," said Dan. "Do you want this ?" he asked, offering Carrie his stun stick.

Carrie raised her eyebrows. "Not normally my kind of thing, but it might come in handy," she said, nodding.

Oscar pulled Dan's arm around his shoulder and helped him up off the bed. Dan managed to half shuffle and half hop out of the door with Oscar's help. "We're not going to be able to move very quickly," Oscar warned his colleagues. "I think Aneisha and Ilya should start looking for Keri. She must have gone upstairs," he suggested.

"We'll do that," agreed Ilya. He and Aneisha headed back the way they had come and back up the stairs.

As they left the room Carrie spotted the set of keys still in the door. "Might as well make use of the facilities," she said, turning the key in the lock.

"Keep the keys. They might come in handy," suggested Oscar. Carrie nodded and pocketed the keys.

"What does Keri look like ?" Ilya asked Aneisha.

"Tall, beautiful, red hair," said Aneisha.

"I think I'll notice that," said Ilya solemnly.


	20. Chapter 20

**The teams have been divided up to investigate Perfect Match. Can we help you ?**

"_What does Keri look like ?" Ilya asked Aneisha._

"_Tall, beautiful, red hair," said Aneisha._

"_I think I'll notice that," said Ilya solemnly._

Tom glanced at Rose sitting in front of the computer screen beside him. The bluish light of the screen reflected off her face. She looked so calm and purposeful. Tom was feeling the strain a little. Normally he would have some light relief on the go during a mission but this time he didn't. Basically, he didn't feel he could play computer games during the mission while Rose was sitting next to him. He knew he wasn't supposed to do it, but it helped to calm his nerves and stop him getting agitated during the long, tense periods of missions when the rest of the team were in danger and Tom had nothing to do. If he started worrying about the others, he couldn't keep calm and if he wasn't calm he couldn't think straight.

"Tom are you alright ?" asked Rose softly.

"Hm ?" said Tom, jumping in his seat.

"You seem a bit agitated," said Rose. "You've been biting your fingernails," she added.

Tom looked at his fingers. "Oh, yeah. I don't normally. I usually have something on the go to take my mind off things, you know," he trailed off.

"Oh yes. I usually have a crossword to do," said Rose. "I wasn't sure how you would take it though, so I didn't bring one," she explained with an apologetic smile.

"Really ?" asked Tom in relief. "It's just that I usually have a game on the go. It helps take my mind off the worry," he said.

"Well, don't let me put you off," said Rose with a smile. "I won't shop you to Frank and Stella."

"You won't ?" asked Tom. "I mean, well, I'm not supposed to," he stopped speaking.

"I know, but when you're stuck at base listening to everyone else taking the risks, it can play on your mind. If it helps you keep focussed, then play your game Tom. Feel free," said Rose.

"Oh, Okay," said Tom, pulling up a game on one corner of his screen. "I wish I could do something for them," he said in frustration. "It's murder just sitting here listening to things happening to them."

"Well, I wouldn't say we're doing nothing," said Rose. "I've been recording their movements and using them to build up a map of the Perfect Match complex," she said, twisting her screen a little to give Tom a better view. "Look !" she said.

Tom looked at a maze of twisting lines showing corridors and stairwells inside the shadowy outline of the building. "That's just where they've been so far ?" he asked.

"Yes. They've covered quite a lot of ground so far," said Rose. "We can probably use this to predict where other useful areas are that they haven't already covered and at least record what they've found so far."

"That's a brilliant idea !" said Tom looking impressed. "I wish I'd thought of that."

"Well, it's nice to know I come in useful," grinned Rose. Tom smiled back at her. She was alright.

Xxxxxxoooooooxxxxxxxx

Ilya and Aneisha ran through empty corridors as quickly and quietly as they could. Where would Keri have gone ? They heard a voice up ahead of them. "Are you sure these DNA samples were taken correctly ?" demanded a man.

"Zoltan !" hissed Aneisha. "We need to hide !" They looked all around them before they both spotted a door with no security pad. Ilya yanked it open and they both threw themselves inside and shut the door. In the darkness of the room behind the door they pressed Aneisha's Spy Pod against the door to listen to what was going on outside. The sound relayed through their earpieces.

"Of course the DNA samples were taken correctly !" complained a woman's voice. "There was no contamination. I have double checked. There must be some other reason why they are not accessing the Zucchero's accounts."

"What other reason could there be ?" demanded Zoltan. Their voices were now retreating down the corridor.

"Why don't we go and ask Zucchero himself. A little pressure applied to his precious sister should loosen his tongue," snapped the woman.

"That or his leg !" replied Zoltan with a hard laugh. "You can choose," he added. In the distance they heard a door opening and closing, followed by silence.

Aneisha felt around on the wall for a light switch and flicked it on. "Ah ! Did you say tall, beautiful and red hair ?" asked Ilya.

"Hm ?" asked Aneisha turning round. "Keri !" she squeaked. "You're Okay !" She ran over and hugged Keri who was now grinning in relief.

"I did wonder why you came in here, and stood leaning against the door in the dark," said Keri slyly. "I wasn't sure if you'd come in here for, you know, other things !" she said, raising her eyebrows.

"What ?" said Aneisha, putting her hands on her hips and looking a Ilya. "Why would we do that ?" she asked.

"I didn't know it was you did I ?" asked Keri. "Well Duh !"

"We need to get moving. Carrie and Oscar are bringing Dan," said Aneisha.

"We need to take down this organisation as well," Ilya reminded her. Aneisha hestitated. Her instinct was to make sure that Dan and Keri were safe. They had Keri and she looked well enough, but Dan was still not able to look after himself.

"Ilya's right. I'm sure the other two can get Dan out," said Keri. "Let's kick some butt. I'm sick of these people," she said. Now that she had backup the full force of her anger about what these people had done to Dan was driving her to get revenge. These people were going to pay ! "Come on !" she said, stepping out of the cupboard.

Aneisha and Ilya looked at one another and were about to follow when they heard Keri say, "Oooh !"

"Get her !" yelled a voice. "She's escaped ! So has her brother. God only knows how he's managed it, but they've both got out of the cell," shouted Zoltan's voice. Ilya grabbed Aneisha's hand to stop her following Keri and switched off the light in their cupboard. They both pressed themselves against the wall behind the door. They could hear the sounds of fighting outside. "For God's sake. There are two of you and only one of her !" complained Zoltan. "Grab her !"

Finally the sound of struggle stopped. "Take her to Control," ordered Zoltan. "Oh, and you, check that cupboard. If Zac Zucchero is in there he shouldn't give you any trouble," added Zoltan sniggering.

Ilya and Aneisha heard footsteps leaving before the cupboard door opened and a man stepped inside, looking around. "Nah, nobody here," said the man after a quick glance around. He shut the door and left.

Listening to the sound of receding footsteps Ilya leant in towards Aneisha. "We should follow them. They will take us to this Control place. It sounds important," he whispered.

"Guys, did we just hear Keri being captured again ?" asked Tom's voice, sounding worried.

"Yes. We are going to follow," said Ilya. "They are going to a place called Control. It sounds interesting," he explained.

"Oh, Okay," said Tom's voice, sounding uncertain. "If you're sure," he added.

"Yes, we are," said Ilya confidently. He looked at Aneisha and smiled. "Coming ?" he asked. She took a deep breath and nodded, following him out into the corridor.


	21. Chapter 21

**The teams have been divided up to investigate Perfect Match. Here we go again ?**

"_Guys, did we just hear Keri being captured again ?" asked Tom's voice, sounding worried._

"_Yes. We are going to follow," said Ilya. "They are going to a place called Control. It sounds interesting," he explained._

"_Oh, Okay," said Tom's voice, sounding uncertain. "If you're sure," he added._

"_Yes, we are," said Ilya confidently. He looked at Aneisha and smiled. "Coming ?" he asked. She took a deep breath and nodded, following him out into the corridor._

Dan was doing his best to move along with Oscar's help. He knew they were moving too slowly, but he was already tired. He had no strength due to the blood loss and tiredness. "Someone's coming !" hissed Carrie. She looked around and found a door. She used her passcard to open it and helped Oscar to drag Dan into the room, making no pretence of helping him to walk. Oscar lowered Dan gently to the floor as Carrie pulled the door shut behind them. She placed her spy-pod to the door to listen to what was going on outside. "I think they're heading to the cell," she whispered to the others. "All hell's going to break loose in a minute."

Dan sat on the floor, trying to get his breath back as quietly as possible. Sweat was trickling down the side of his face which he tried to wipe off with his sleeve before the others noticed. His leg was throbbing and the last thing he wanted to do was move, but in a few minutes, they would have no alternative. He looked up at Carrie listening at the door. He didn't need the Spy Pod to hear the commotion which broke out in the corridor. "They've gone ! Start a search ! They can't have got far !" yelled a man's voice.

"No kidding !" muttered Dan under his breath.

He didn't see the glance passed between Carrie and Oscar. Carrie raised her eyebrows at Oscar. Oscar shook his head. Carrie turned on the lights. "OK, let's see what we've got to play with," she suggested. The room was lined with metal boxes. Oscar pulled one from a shelf. It was locked. Carried pulled off another. "They're all locked," she said. "It would be nice to know what's inside," she said, looking at the others. "We're probably better off staying in here for a bit. There's too much action outside at the moment," she suggested. Oscar nodded his agreement.

"Give one to me. I might be able to open one," said Dan. He just wanted to be useful.

Carrie gave a secret smile to Oscar who handed down Dan his box. "Yeah, give it a go," said Oscar. He reached into his backpack and handed Dan a multi-function tool. Glad to have something to concentrate on, Dan got to work on the lock. The others started to hunt through the storage room to see what else they could find. They came to a metal safe set into the wall. "This looks electronic," said Oscar. He touched his ear. "Guys, we could do with some help opening this safe," he said. After listening to some instructions he placed his Spy Pod against the safe door.

Dan glanced up at the two older agents as they watched figures spilling across Oscar's Spy Pod screen. He became curious when they both stiffened, obviously listening to something through their earpieces. He knew that look well. Something was wrong. "What's happened ?" he asked quietly.

Oscar looked over at him, obviously wondering whether or not to tell him something. Dan sighed. "I've got a dodgy leg. I haven't lost mental capacity," said Dan resignedly.

Oscar smiled slightly and said, "Keri has just been captured by the staff here. The other two are undetected. They're going to follow Keri to somewhere called 'Control'. Have you ever been there ?" Oscar asked him.

"No. Never heard about it either," said Dan. He wanted to go chasing after Keri, but there was zero chance of that happening right now. He gritted his teeth and tried at least to finish off something he could do. "Got it !" he hissed, finally opening the box. After a glance back at the Spy Pod which was still displaying lists of numbers, Oscar and Carrie came over for a look inside Dan's box.

"So, what have we got ?" asked Carrie. They each reached inside and pulled out something. "I've got a file with lists of bank account details," said Carrie.

"Lists of peoples' names, phone numbers and descriptions of what they do," said Oscar, glancing through his folder.

Dan opened a little box. "Photographs and jewellery," said Dan. He pulled out a silver locket and opened it. Inside was a picture of two little girls. "These are someone's personal things," he said. "I wonder if these were their children ?" he asked. He glanced through the photographs and found more pictures of the two girls as they got steadily older. There were other pictures of what he assumed must be family members. Everyone in the photographs was smiling at the person behind the camera. He guessed that person must be another criminal. Still, they were entitled to their own life. He wondered if they were dead. What had happened to those children ? He had never, ever felt sorry for a criminal before. They deserved to be punished for their crimes as far as he was concerned, but this was much worse than any legal punishment. A person's life and whole existence had been stolen from them. Nobody deserved that, no matter what they had done. He felt shocked by his own surge in empathy for this person he had never met. Dan did not consider himself a very imaginative person and was hardly the touchy-feely member of the team. "This is sick !" he said.

Oscar and Carrie looked at one another. "We're with you on that !" said Carrie, screwing up her face. Oscar nodded in agreement. There was a click behind them and they glanced around to see the safe door swinging open. "Thanks Tom !" said Carrie. She rolled her eyes and grinned, "Okay, thanks Rose as well !" she added. This made Dan smile back. There was obviously some friendly competition going on back at base. At least he hoped it was friendly.

Oscar and Carrie walked over to the safe. "Ooh !" said Carrie, her eyes wide.

"What's inside ?" asked Dan.

Carrie reached inside and pulled out a gun wrapped in a plastic bag, like an evidence bag used by the police. "Weapons," said Carrie. "Lots and lots of weapons," she added, pulling out one gun after another, as well as knives and grenades. She looked at Oscar. "What shall we do with this lot ?" she asked him.

Oscar looked thoughtful. "Take anything we're prepared to use and then put the rest back," he said. He picked up a small device and tossed it in his hand. "This is a time delay explosive," he said. "Let's set this going with a good long time delay and blow up everything in the safe," he said.

"Good idea," agreed Carrie. Dan nodded his agreement. The two agents pulled out a few devices and put them in their bags. Dan noticed that neither of them chose any guns. He was quite relieved. He hadn't been sure if older agents would have to use deadly force. He didn't feel ready for that yet.

Oscar came over and handed Dan a couple of small, flat discs. "Stun grenades," said Oscar. "They're not too heavy. You might be able to use them," he said. Dan nodded and stuffed them into his shirt pocket. He was relieved he hadn't been relegated to being the invalid within the team. Carrie fiddled with the device Oscar had been tossing in his hand, before placing it back in the safe.

"There, that should do it," she said. "I've set it with a two hour timer. Do you think that will be enough ?" she asked the other two.

"God I hope so !" said Dan. "I'm hoping to be long gone by then !" he said. Oscar nodded in agreement. Carrie swung the safe door shut and they heard it reset.

"Now what ?" Carrie asked, touching her earpiece. She and Oscar listened for a moment. Dan saw them both giving him a calculating look. "Can you go much further Dan ?" Carrie asked.

Dan took a deep breath. There was no point beating about the bush. "Not for much longer," he admitted. "I'm too exhausted."

Carried nodded without comment and carried on talking to the team at base. "Dan can't make it very far," she reported. There was a pause. "No, there's no way we can collect or photograph everything in this store. There's masses of it," she said, waving at the rows and rows of shelves, stacked high with metal boxes. "We would take a week to open them all and nobody is going to carry that lot out of here. You need an electronic source of the information. It looks like even Perfect Match don't come down here very often," she added. "There must be electronic copies of all this stuff somewhere. Why don't you start searching for it ?" she asked.

"Okay, what do you want us to do ?" asked Oscar. He and Carrie listened to their instructions. "Okay, but then we have to get Dan out," said Oscar.

"Don't forget Keri," said Dan. "You could stick me somewhere out of the way while you help the others," he suggested. He didn't want to be the reason they couldn't help Keri.

"Let's see how far we get," said Carrie. "Tom and Rose want us to install a device to let them hack into the computer network," she told Dan. "We need to find a computer terminal."

"I know one we could use," said Oscar. "It's in the supervisor's room in the translation suite."


	22. Chapter 22

**The teams have been divided up to investigate Perfect Match. Lost and found.**

"_Don't forget Keri," said Dan. "You could stick me somewhere out of the way while you help the others," he suggested. He didn't want to be the reason they couldn't help Keri. _

"_Let's see how far we get," said Carrie. "Tom and Rose want us to install a device to let them hack into the computer network," she told Dan. "We need to find a computer terminal."_

"_I know one we could use," said Oscar. "It's in the supervisor's room in the translation suite."_

Aneisha and Ilya were carefully tracking Keri as she was marched through the building. They had so far managed to avoid contact, largely by pressing themselves against corridor walls as people passed in other corridors. They were jogging to catch up with Keri and her captors after hiding for a minute when their luck finally ran out. Aneisha turned a corner and found herself face to face with a woman she vaguely recognised. "Miss Marsters isn't it ?" asked the woman, looking puzzled.

"Oh, I am sooo glad we found you," gushed Aneisha. "Do you know it is sooo hard to find your way round this area. I haven't been here for very long and since Petrov and I were asked to attend the Control room, we've been wandering around like complete idiots !" she laughed.

The woman looked a bit doubtful. She glanced up at Ilya who smiled his best charming smile. "Well, I'll just check with Control," said the woman, pulling her phone out of her pocket. As she stared down at her phone, temporarily distracted, Ilya darted her with a sleep dart. The woman slid to the floor and Ilya caught her, dragging her to a nearby cupboard.

"I clearly need to work on the smile," said Ilya, puffing with the woman's weight. "It has always worked before," he complained.

Aneisha looked at him sideways. "I'm sure it has," she said meaningfully. "Yes, I know !" she said, stopping him from responding. "Only in the interests of national security," she said with a smile.

"Of course !" said Ilya, grinning back at her. "Its effects are too devastating !" Aneisha couldn't help giggling, despite how scared she was. "Good, we must be getting closer now," said Ilya peeking out of the cupboard door. "All clear !" he whispered. They both dashed out of the cupboard and jogged quietly to the end of the corridor. There was a secure door ahead of them, blocking the way. Ilya took out his Spy Pod and placed it against the door. They both listened. They could hear the sound of distant voices. "Shall we risk it ?" Ilya asked Aneisha. She nodded. He used his passcard to open the door and they slipped through. They could hear voices up ahead. To the side of them were several doors. One was marked 'Translation Booths'. Ilya pointed and then brazenly opened the door.

Inside was a balcony looking out over a larger room. Two people were sitting in booths sectioned off by low barriers. They were sitting with headphones and speaking into microphones. "This is our translation balcony," announced Ilya, as if he were giving Aneisha a tour of the facilities. They boldly walked around the balcony until they were as far as possible from the two people already there. Ilya put on a headset and sat in the chair. Aneisha knelt beside him, so that she could not be seen from the rest of the room. They disconnected the headset from its connector and plugged in Aneisha's Spy Pod instead. Aneisha sat on the floor, hidden behind Ilya and listened to what was happening on the floor below them.

"So ! Tanya, would you care to tell us how you escaped ?" demanded an angry woman.

"No," said Keri's voice. "But it was easy. You people are amateurs !" she spat.

Aneisha grinned to herself. Keri was really getting into character, or possibly she was just getting very angry. Aneisha had never seen Keri angry. Hopefully she wouldn't forget who she was supposed to be.

"And your dear brother, where is he ?" asked the woman.

"You don't seriously expect me to tell you that do you ?" laughed Keri. "He should be long gone by now."

"Don't take us for fools, Miss Zucchero !" snapped Zoltan's voice. "He can't walk unaided. He can't have got far. We'll find him, and when we do, I think one of you will be ready to explain yourselves !" he threatened.

"And what do we have to explain ?" asked Keri.

"You can explain why your brother's DNA does not access the DNA controlled accounts in your names," shouted Zoltan.

"Work it out for yourself !" Keri shouted back. Aneisha heard a hard slap. Someone had hit Keri.

"Tie her up," instructed Zoltan. "We'll get them both here and work them together," he said. "Intensify the search !" he ordered to someone in the room. Aneisha glanced up at Ilya who looked equally worried.

Aneisha touched her ear. "Guys, you really need to get moving. They're intensifying the search," she whispered.

"Understood," murmured Carrie's voice. "We're trying to find an access point for Rose and Tom to hack into their data," she explained. Aneisha thought her voice sounded strained.

Xxxxxxxoooooooxxxxxx

Carrie was getting increasingly worried. They had left the storage room where they had been hiding and Oscar had been half supporting and half carrying Dan ever since. They had only just missed being seen by a pair of security guards searching the building. It was only a matter of time before they were seen. She heard footsteps running towards them. "Oscar ! We've got to get out of here !" she hissed.

"Sorry Dan," whispered Oscar. He grabbed the younger agent round the waist and threw him over his shoulder, before running after Carrie to a side door. They made it inside just in time to avoid the people coming down the corridor behind them. They were inside a cupboard filled with cleaning equipment and products. Oscar dropped Dan into a large trolley bin with rubbish bags in the bottom. There wasn't time to be gentle and he winced as he heard Dan's groan of pain. He and Carrie threw bags and dirty towels over Dan to keep him out of sight. "Up !" hissed Oscar. He and Carrie braced themselves between the walls and walked up the walls to the ceiling. They only just made it before the door was thrown open and the light switched on.

Oscar froze, trying not to breathe loudly and willing himself not to sweat. He prayed that the man searching the room wouldn't look up. His heart skipped a beat as he saw the man poking around in the rubbish trolley. The man pulled away a towel to reveal Dan's pale face. "Hey, we've got him ! He's in here !" shouted the man, dashing back out into the corridor to attract some help.

Dan looked up straight into Oscar's horrified face. He shook his head ever so slightly in warning. Immediately the tiny room swarmed with men who pulled the rubbish trolley out into the corridor, before slamming the door shut behind them. Carrie let out a huge sigh, before slowly lowering herself to the floor, followed by Oscar. "Just take the trolley !" shouted someone out in the corridor. "It's easier than carrying him. He's not a threat. Go on !" they called. Then they heard the squeak of the trolley wheels rolling off into the distance.

"Damn !" said Carrie. "We almost made it. Why did we have to go wandering round the building ? We should have got him out first and then come back to get evidence," she complained.

Oscar shook his head and shrugged. "It's too late now," he said. "They must be taking him to the same place as Keri." He touched his ear. "Ilya, have you got sight of Keri ?" he asked.

"Yes. She is in this Control room," said Ilya. "We are undetected so far," he added.

"They've caught Dan," said Oscar shortly. "We think he's being brought there too."

"Oooh. This is not good," said Ilya quietly. "They plan to interrogate Keri and Dan and use them against one another. We must act quickly," he said.

"We'll join you," said Oscar.

"Erm guys," came Rose's voice tentatively. "Is there any chance you could plant our hacking device before you go to the rescue ?" she asked.

"Is it really necessary ?" asked Tom's voice softly. "They could get really hurt !" he pleaded.

"If you have an opportunity, it's our best chance of taking this organisation down," said Rose.

Oscar looked to Carrie. "What do you think ?" he asked.


	23. Chapter 23

The teams have been divided up to investigate Perfect Match. Found and found.

"_Erm guys," came Rose's voice tentatively. "Is there any chance you could plant our hacking device before you go to the rescue ?" she asked._

"_Is it really necessary ?" asked Tom's voice softly. "They could get really hurt !" he pleaded._

"_If you have an opportunity, it's our best chance of taking this organisation down," said Rose. _

_Oscar looked to Carrie. "What do you think ?" he asked._

Carrie sighed. "I really don't want to, but in the long run, I guess we need to do it," she said.

"We'll do it. Quickly," said Oscar. "Come on Carrie. The faster we get there the sooner we can help the others."

Carrie grinned. "Did you say fast ?" she asked, lifting one eyebrow at Oscar.

Oscar looked at her fondly, kissed her on the forehead, and said, "Race you !" before flinging himself out of the door, leaving a startled Carrie in his wake.

"What ? You .. ! That's not fair !" squeaked Carrie before steaming out of the door after him.

Unburdened by Dan's weight, Oscar could stretch out his long frame and sprint at a pretty good speed. Carrie was faster for her size, but she was at least a foot shorter and it was all she could do to keep up with him. It took less than a minute to reach a door leading out of the secure area. They let themselves out carefully, checking for security cameras and people. There was nobody around. The area was deserted. "I know where we are now," said Oscar. "This way !" he said leading Carrie out into an open plan area with booths. "This is it," he said, slipping his passcard into the security reader on the door to the supervisor's office.

Once inside the room, it didn't take them long to connect Tom and Rose's device into the network connection. "OK, it's installed," said Oscar, touching his ear. "Is it working ?" he asked.

"Yes thankyou. We're in," said Rose's voice. "Thanks guys. Good luck !" she added.

"We can tell you how to get to the Control Room if you want," came Tom's voice.

"You know the way ?" asked Carrie.

"Yes. Rose has been tracking all of your movements and Ilya and Aneisha are already there," explained Tom. "Get back into the secure area and I'll give you directions," he said.

"Nice one Tom !" said Carrie. "Oh, and good thinking Rose," she added.

Tom guided them back through the maze of corridors in the secure area of the building. They were more careful this time, but hurried as much as they dared. There seemed to be fewer people around now that both Dan and Keri had been caught. If they were going to help them, they couldn't afford to get caught as well.

Xxxxxxxooooooxxxxxxxxx

Keri continued to try to release herself. Her hands were tied very securely behind her back and she had not managed more than loosening the rope a little. She looked around her curiously. There appeared to be some sort of conference going on. There were three people sitting around a table, each wearing headphones and each speaking a different language. Keri glanced up to see a couple of faces she didn't recognise behind the glass of a gallery overlooking the room. She was looking at one particularly hot looking blond guy when a familiar smiling face popped up into the window next to him and waved at her before sinking down again. She resisted the urge to grin back at Aneisha. Yes ! Now she felt a lot more confident knowing that the cavalry was here.

She tried to listen to some of the conversation taking place around the conference table. She could only understand the guy who was speaking English. "We have replacements ready for both of the Zuccheros," said the man. "We are simply waiting to resolve a few minor issues and then the operation can proceed," he said in a reassuring tone. Keri couldn't understand the other two people, but they didn't sound too happy, judging by their tone of voice.

The door to the room swung open and two men came in pushing a wheeled rubbish trolley. "Oh how appropriate !" sneered the woman in charge. "Fetch Zoltan !" she ordered one of the men guarding Keri, who quickly left. "Get him out," she ordered the men with the trolley. Keri watched in dismay as the men leant inside the trolley and hauled up Dan. They pulled him out over the side and he struggled against them, but obviously didn't have the strength to make much of an impact. Another chair was placed beside Keri's and Dan was tied to it.

Dan looked over at Keri and saw the red mark on the side of her face. Keri saw the angry look on Dan's face and assumed he was sick of being dragged around. She sure would be pissed off if she were in his shoes.

Zoltan came into the room. "Good you have them both," he said, absentmindedly running his thumbs over his phone, before slipping it into his pocket. He stopped in front of Dan and Keri with his hands on his hips. "So, Zac, what have you done with your bank accounts ?" he asked calmly.

Dan glanced at Keri. "I guess the DNA didn't work then ?" he said, smirking. Zoltan nodded and one of the men slapped Keri across the face again. "Get your hands off of her !" screamed Dan, pulling up in his chair, but falling back again when a jolt of pain shot from his injured leg.

"A little co-operation would be appreciated Mr. Zucchero," said Zoltan, examining the back of his hand, before suddenly punching Dan in the stomach. Then he kicked Dan on his sore leg. Dan couldn't help shouting out with the pain.

"Stop it !" screamed Keri. "Stop it ! We, we changed it !" she yelped, wondering what on earth to say. The truth would be disastrous.

"What do you mean, you changed it ?" demanded Zoltan.

"We changed it to someone else's DNA," said Keri desperately. "Zac kept a sample in his case so that we could still get access. We decided it was too dangerous using our own," she added, hoping this lie would convince Zoltan.

Zoltan looked at her unconvinced. One of the guards grabbed Keri's hair and yanked her head back, holding a knife to her throat.

"No ! It's, it's true," panted Dan, bent over in his chair. "We used a random DNA sample. I took it from someone in a restaurant. The only samples are in my computer bag and a safe deposit box in Italy," he said.

"Very well, you will give me the key to this safe deposit box," ordered Zoltan.

Dan shrugged. "It's in our stuff. I don't have it," he said, hanging his head in exhaustion.

Zoltan clicked his fingers. "Release her," he ordered the man holding the knife to Keri's throat. She sank back in relief. "Bring their things. I want them to give us this key," ordered Zoltan. One of the men left the room.

At this point, one of the men sitting at the conference table pointed at Dan and said something in Italian. "What did he say ?" asked Zoltan.

"He said, 'Who are these people ?'" said the English speaking man at the table.

"They are Zac and Tanya Zucchero," said Zoltan to the Italian man. He responded and spat on the floor.

"He said they aren't," said the English speaking man.

"They have changed their appearance to avoid detection by MI9," explained Zoltan patiently. The Italian man stood up and started shouting belligerently.

"He says we are all idiots. These people are clearly not the Zuccheros. The boy is too big and the girl is too pretty," said the English speaking man, looking confused.

**There are loads of good stories being written at the moment. Sorry to everyone if I'm not keeping up with the reviewing. I want to mention KatnissBellaPotter for Not All Human, I've been enjoying Sire which also has a different slant as well as The Return of Zoe, Dr Death, wow there are loads. Sorry I haven't mentioned more. Thanks to everyone who has taken time to review.**


	24. Chapter 24

**The teams have been divided up to investigate Perfect Match. Why it pays to learn a foreign language.**

"_They have changed their appearance to avoid detection by MI9," explained Zoltan patiently. The Italian man stood up and started shouting belligerently. _

"_He says we are all idiots. These people are clearly not the Zuccheros. The boy is too big and the girl is too pretty," said the English speaking man, looking confused._

"Oscar and Carrie, you'll find Ilya and Aneisha in a room off the corridor you are on. It's on your left," said Tom's soft voice in their earpieces.

"Oscar, we need to act," said Ilya's voice. "Things are kicking off. We are on a balcony overlooking the main control room. It is used to house the simultaneous translators. There are two in here right now. I think there is one translating Italian to English and one translating English to Italian. We need to take them out quickly and replace them."

Oscar glanced at Carrie. "On it," said Oscar.

They found the door and walked in confidently. Looking across the curved glass window, Oscar saw Ilya and signalled to him. Ilya nodded and ducked down. Oscar and Carrie walked up behind the first translator. He was too busy concentrating on the scene below to notice them. Carrie darted the man with a sleep dart and pulled him off the chair while Oscar smoothly slipped into the seat and put on the headset. Instantly he started talking Italian. Carrie laid the sleeping body of the translator under the shelf of the booth next door. She walked around the balcony to find Ilya already sitting in his translator's chair, speaking English into his headset. Aneisha was laying another sleeping body under the shelf. She looked up at Carrie and grinned. "It's good to see you," said Aneisha. "Come and listen on one of the headsets," she said. Carrie followed Aneisha to the booth where she and Ilya had been listening in on the action below.

Ilya found himself translating the accusations of the Italian man. He looked across at Oscar and raised his eyebrows. Oscar mouthed 'follow me' back to him. Ilya wondered what Oscar had in mind.

Down in the control room everyone was looking confused. The Italian man was still shouting and gesticulating, but the man trying to translate was losing track of what he was being told. Finally he stopped talking. "What is he saying ?" Zoltan asked him.

"He's not happy," said the man at the conference table.

"Thankyou. Very helpful !" said Zoltan sarcastically. He walked over to Keri and Dan. "Do you know anything about this ?" he demanded.

Dan shrugged, slumped forward in his chair. He felt like the net was closing in on them and he was too tired to fight back. Keri could sense that Dan, the guy who never gave up, had nothing left in the tank. He was running on empty. "It's common for people to deny who we are," she said dismissively. "Sometimes it is jealousy. Sometimes it's a deliberate attempt to take over our business. You're not the first you know !" she accused Zoltan.

"Perhaps not. We will however be the first to succeed," declared Zoltan. He looked up at the balcony. "Please explain to this man that we are obtaining the relevant DNA to access the Zucchero's accounts. We will take his opinion into consideration. Something like that," he said dismissively.

Oscar smiled grimly to himself. He spoke into his microphone. "He says that you are a fat fool who wouldn't know what a pretty girl looks like, unless you were paying her," said Oscar in a matter-of-fact voice.

He watched in satisfaction as the Italian man stood up and furiously waved his fist at Zoltan. "He says he will be delighted to wait for the results of the tests and please take all the time that you want," Ilya said into his microphone. Under the balcony shelf, Aneisha and Carrie listened through the Spy Pod and looked at one another in delight.

Down on the floor the second Italian man stood beside his colleague. He looked equally angry. "If Signor Albertini says that these are not the Zuccheros then they are not the Zuccheros. How dare you say these things !" shouted the second man. Zoltan grabbed the headset of the English speaking man from the conference table in frustration and put it on.

"He says he is also pleased to see that you have the Zuccheros under your control," said Ilya's voice. "He thinks the red-head is particularly cute."

"Well, yes," said Zoltan, confused about the men's reactions. "Our people will return with the necessary DNA shortly and then we can begin our deception," he explained.

"You are both fat and ugly. I don't know why we ever agreed to work with you two morons," said Oscar in Italian.

The two Italians went ballistic. They launched themselves at Zoltan, fists flying. Zoltan staggered backwards away from them. "Get these people off me !" he shouted to the guards. The men left Dan and Keri's side and ran to aid their boss.

Oscar looked across at Ilya. "Let's go," he said. They jumped up from their places and all four agents ran from the room.

"Guys, we've got access to some of the building's systems now. I'm going to disable all the locks," said Tom's voice in their earpieces. "Frank and Stella are organising a SWAT team. Good luck," he added.

Down on the control room floor, Keri desperately worked at her bonds. Confident that she didn't need to conceal what she was doing she managed to work one of the knots looser. She glanced up at the mayhem unfolding in front of them as more people descended into the melee of flying fists. "Yes !" she hissed as she finally freed her hands. "Come on Dan. We're getting out of here," she whispered in his ear. He lifted his head and looked at her. He looked defeated.

"You'll have to go without me," he whispered wearily. "I've had it," he added, his head falling back down.

"Rubbish !" hissed Keri, working at the ropes tying his hands. It was much easier when she could see what she was doing. Finally she had freed him. He looked ready to fall off his chair rather than make a daring escape. "Dan !" she said desperately. "We need to run now !"

The door to the control room opened, but only Keri noticed. She felt like cheering when Oscar, Carrie, Aneisha and the hot blond guy from the balcony ran into the room. She realised the blond was Ilya. She must have a thing for blonds ! Turning back to Dan, she helped him get off his chair and half carried him to the side of the room, sitting him against some furniture. She watched as the four other agents began darting the people in the room. As people fell to the floor unconscious, the others started to notice the strangers in the room.

The door was flung open again and a man staggered drunkenly in. "Marco !" called Zoltan.

Marco pointed furiously at Aneisha. "That Molly Marsters, she's a spy and all her friends are spies too !" he yelled. He lurched to the side and fell over a chair, landing hard on the floor.

"Get this under control !" yelled Zoltan. "Call security !" he yelled to the woman in charge. She ran to a console and started talking into a microphone. She looked puzzled and pressed a few buttons.

"We've lost communications !" she shouted.

Oscar smiled. Rose and Tom hadn't wasted any time. He was in close combat with one of the guards. "Fall back !" shouted Zoltan and all of his team, as well as the Italians backed up together in the centre of the room. One of the Italians pulled out a gun and pointed it at the spies.

Dan looked up and remembered what he had in his pocket. He reached in for one of the stun grenades. With all the energy he had left he flung the grenade at the central group. There was an almighty bang and people fell to the floor.

"What happened ?" asked Aneisha, knocking her head to stop her ears ringing.

"Stun grenade," muttered Dan. Only Keri heard.

"Dan says it was a stun grenade," she said, sounding puzzled.

"Oh ! Nice one Dan," said Oscar. He looked at the state of Dan and wondered how he had managed it. A loud klaxon alarm sounded. "We need to get out of here," he said.


	25. Chapter 25

**The teams have been divided up to investigate Perfect Match. Back in the bin.**

"_What happened ?" asked Aneisha, knocking her head to stop her ears ringing._

"_Stun grenade," muttered Dan. Only Keri heard._

"_Dan says it was a stun grenade," she said, sounding puzzled. _

"_Oh ! Nice one Dan," said Oscar. He looked at the state of Dan and wondered how he had managed it. A loud klaxon alarm sounded. "We need to get out of here," he said._

Carrie touched her earpiece. "Rose and Tom, the people in the control room are stunned, but someone has set off an alarm. We need to get out of here quickly. If you want to gather any more intelligence you need to be quick Okay ?" she said quickly.

"Got that Carrie," said Rose's voice. "Do you need any help finding your way out ?" she asked.

Carrie looked at the others and they all nodded. "Yes thanks," she said. She looked across at Oscar and Keri lifting Dan up off the floor. "Maybe not too many stairs if you can manage it," she said.

"How are we going to get him out ?" asked Keri. "He's exhausted." Carrie pointed to the rubbish trolley. "Oh do we have to ?" asked Keri.

"I don't see any other option right now," said Oscar. "Come on." They carried Dan over to the trolley.

"Just a sec," said Aneisha and she grabbed a big sack full of shredded paper from the corner of the room. "Might as well make it a bit more comfortable," she said, emptying the sack into the bin and spreading it out.

They all lifted up Dan, trying not to jolt his leg and lowered him gently into the bin. They had to curl him up a little to make him fit.

"You Okay Dan ?" asked Oscar. Dan nodded slightly. "Right, let's get moving," said Oscar.

Aneisha had to smother a small smile. Dan looked so much like a hamster curled up in its nest. She didn't think he would like her to say so though. She guessed the team's action man would just be feeling stupid and useless. No, not a good time for the hamster analogy. Ilya grabbed the trolley and pushed it out of the doors with the others running alongside, in front and behind.

Dan lay in the trolley feeling stupid and useless. Damn his stupid leg ! There was no point in making a bigger nuisance of himself, so he closed his eyes and willed it all to come to an end. He could feel the vibrations of the wheels coming up through the trolley, but thanks to Aneisha's hamster bedding it wasn't too uncomfortable. In a bit of a daze, Dan started to drift off to sleep. He was brought back to his senses when the shouting started.

"Oi ! There are the intruders ! Get them !" shouted a loud voice. "They're wanted for interrogation ! Keep some alive !" shouted another voice. Then gunshots rang out round the corridor. A bullet shot through the sides of the trolley, luckily above where Dan lay.

"Dan ! Are you Okay ?" shouted Aneisha's anxious voice above the din, as the trolley was shoved more quickly.

"Yeah, I'm Okay," Dan said, as loudly as he could manage. Suddenly the trolley slammed into a solid object and stopped. The jolt went right through Dan, and he gripped his sore leg in pain. There was a sound of fighting going on. He was frustrated at not being able to help. Although he wanted nothing more than to try to help, he knew that he could so easily be used as a hostage by the Perfect Match guards. Instead he lay quietly and listened anxiously to what was going on around him.

"Carrie !" shouted Oscar anxiously. "Look out !" he shouted. There was the sound of hits and kicks, grunts and groans of pain. "Ilya ! On your left !" yelled Oscar. He seemed to be standing the closest to the trolley. Everyone else's shouts were less distinct in the general hubub. "We need to break out of this," Oscar said. "I can see more of them coming guys," he added.

Unable to lie in silence, not knowing what was going on, any longer Dan pulled himself up a little and put his eye to the bullet hole in the side of the trolley. By moving his head he could get a reasonable view of what was going on outside. He saw Aneisha fighting one of the guards. She was holding her own, but starting to tire. Carrie seemed to be fighting two men at once and pretty successfully. She was obviously the fighter of the team. He couldn't see Oscar, Keri and Ilya. He rolled over so he could use the other bullet hole. This one gave him a scene of Oscar fighting against two guards, Keri knocking the stuffing out of a guy and occasional views of Ilya's legs kicking another guard. Worst of all, he could see a cluster of angry looking men running down the corridor towards them all, and they weren't MI9. A brief adrenaline rush finally made it to his brain and he reached into his pocket and pulled out his final stun grenade. Checking through the bullet hole again he tossed the grenade as hard as he could, praying it would go over the tops of everyone's heads. "Stun !" he yelled, stuffing his fingers in his ears. He hoped the others would hear.

He checked through his spy hole again and watched in satisfaction as the grenade exploded in the middle of the incoming group of guards. There was a flash, an almighty bang, and like skittles the men scattered on the floor. "Strike !" shouted Oscar. Dan grinned.

"There's someone in the trolley !" yelled a new voice. "Get them !"

"Oh no you don't !" said Oscar. Dan could hear him struggling with someone, followed by a grunt of pain. Before he could react he felt hands grabbing his arms and pulling him up from the trolley.

"Hey, look what I caught !" shouted a voice behind him. "What happened to your trousers mate ?" laughed the rough voice. "Aw ! He's got a sore leg. Let me help you with that," said the man with fake sincerity before yanking him backwards and dragging him over the edge of the trolley, scraping the wounded leg against the side. The shock of the pain left Dan too breathless to shout out and his world went dark.

Keri watched Dan being roughly dragged from the trolley and saw him slump into unconsciousness. Fury filled her. She smashed her fist into the face of the guard she was fighting, knocking him out with that single hit. She marched across the floor towards the man holding Dan, helping Oscar to his feet on the way, but not stopping. Her eyes were burning with anger and they were fixed on the thug laughing at her unconscious friend. She pointed at the man. "You ! Put ! Him ! Down ! Now ! So I can kill you quickly !" she screamed. She faintly heard Aneisha's voice calling out her name behind her, but the red mist was down and this guy was going to pay for what he just did.

The guy holding Dan looked up at her and the satisfied leer on his face froze when he saw Keri's face. Her pointing finger looked a lot like a gun pointing at his head. Shocked by her intensity he dropped Dan to the floor and took a step back. Realising his mistake the man then lurched forward to grab Dan's limp body and use it as a hostage against this raging fury in front of him. He was too late. Keri launched at him, a blur of flying fists and feet. Keri kicked and punched and chopped at the man. She barely saw where her blows landed. They all hit their target. The man was forced steadily back until he was up against the wall. She was still hitting him when an arm wrapped around her shoulders and pulled her back.

"Keri, he's out cold. You need to stop now," said Ilya's voice. "It's Okay. You did it. Stop now," he said quietly. The fury washed out of her and she almost passed out as the super human strength it had given her vanished. She looked on stunned as the guard she had attacked slipped down the wall to the floor. His face was bloody and bruised. Ilya's arms held her up as she too sagged with exhaustion and shock at what she had just done. Just how much of a clone of the Mastermind was she ? Was she a killing machine at heart ? Tears started to roll down her cheeks.

"Keri ?" It was Aneisha, looking at her with concern. "It's Okay Keri. The SWAT team have arrived," said Aneisha gently. "Come on, sit down for a minute. You need a break," she said. Aneisha guided her over to the wall next to Dan and they sat down together, leaning against the wall. She finally noticed the MI9 agents swarming around them.

They watched as Ilya guided a pair of medics over to Dan. He also motioned towards Keri and one of the medics looked up at her and smiled reassuringly. "We'll just check over your friend first agents," said the man. "You look like you've had a full day," he said gently.

"Is he alright ?" Keri managed to ask.

The two medics checked Dan over thoroughly before wrapping him in a silvery blanket with a monitor stuck on his finger. "He'll be fine once he's had rest," said the medic. He insisted on checking Keri next. "You're exhausted too," said the man. "Stay where you are. We'll get you both evacuated as soon as we are able," he explained, before moving off with his colleague ,checking the injuries of other MI9 agents.

"God Aneisha ! What did I do ?" whimpered Keri.

Aneisha grimaced. "Well, I guess you went a little bit crazy there," she said looking sympathetically at Keri. "You like him don't you ?" she asked, so quietly, that Keri barely heard her, nodding towards Dan.

"Of course I like him. He's our friend isn't he ?" said Keri.

"No, I mean like, like," said Aneisha, nodding at Keri.

"Oh ! Like, like," said Keri vaguely. "I guess," she said in a whisper.


	26. Chapter 26

**The teams have been divided up to investigate Perfect Match. Afterwards. Last chappie.**

"_God Aneisha ! What did I do ?" whimpered Keri._

_Aneisha grimaced. "Well, I guess you went a little bit crazy there," she said looking sympathetically at Keri. "You like him don't you ?" she asked, so quietly, that Keri barely heard her, nodding towards Dan._

"_Of course I like him. He's our friend isn't he ?" said Keri._

"_No, I mean like, like," said Aneisha, nodding at Keri._

"_Oh ! Like, like," said Keri vaguely. "I guess," she said in a whisper._

The rest of the night seemed to stretch out forever for Keri. She watched Dan being loaded up on to a stretcher, wrapped in blankets and towed away. Someone helped her to follow and she was shown into the same ambulance. "Is he alright ?" she asked the paramedic once the ambulance was driving through the night.

"He's sleeping," said the paramedic as he checked the monitor on Dan's finger and wrote something on a sheet of paper. "Why don't you lie down. You look all in," he said, smiling at Keri. She lay down on the spare stretcher she was sitting on and drifted off to sleep.

Keri woke blinking in bright sunshine. She was lying in a hospital bed, separated from the next bed by a blue curtain. She looked around curiously and realised that Tom was sitting beside her, playing on his games console. "Tom ?" she asked. Her voice was a bit croaky so she cleared her throat.

"Oh Keri, you're awake," said Tom smiling up at her. "You want a drink ?" he asked her.

"Please," said Keri. Tom leapt to his feet and poured Keri a drink from a jug on the table beside her. She gulped down the drink gratefully and handed Tom the cup. He gave her another which she also drank. "Mm, thanks. That's better," she said, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. "Why am I in here ?" she asked curiously.

"Oh, they said you were exhausted," explained Tom. "I think they just want to make sure you've had some sleep and eaten before they let you go home," he said.

"Where's Dan ?" asked Keri.

Tom pointed to the curtain. "He's through there. He's still asleep," he said.

"Is he alright ?" asked Keri anxiously.

"He's fine. They've given him painkillers and antibiotics and left him to sleep it off," Tom said. "I'll go and give him a kiss to wake him up if you like," he said cheekily.

"Oi ! I heard that," complained a hoarse voice behind the curtain.

Laughing, Tom got up and pulled the curtain back. A sleepy and grumpy looking Dan lay in the bed next to Keri's. "How long have you been awake ?" asked Tom.

"Since I heard someone talking," said Dan, shaking his head and blinking. Tom got him a drink and Dan took it gratefully. "Oh thanks mate," said Dan as Tom got him another. Tom surreptitiously glanced between Keri and Dan. Between the two of them, Keri definitely looked better. Dan was still pale and looked weary.

"I'll let them know you're awake," said Tom, slipping out of the door. When he returned, he was followed by a smiling nurse and a man pushing a trolley loaded with trays of food. Their beds were raised and plates of food put in front of them.

"I'm looking for empty plates," warned the nurse before she left the room.

Keri realised she was starving and tore into her food. It was way better than she expected for hospital food although she was so hungry she would have eaten just about anything. Once her worst hunger pangs had been satisfied she looked across to Dan who was eating more slowly. "It's not bad is it ?" she asked him. He nodded, still chewing. "Did you get enough information on Perfect Match, you and Rose ?" Keri asked Tom.

"Yes. Luckily we had what we needed when the SWAT team arrived. As soon as they broke in, the Perfect Match people set a programme running to wipe all of their data," said Tom. "It's all gone now," he said. "We've got information on all of the people they've replaced. It looks like they've been operating for over five years now. We haven't counted how many people's identities they've stolen, but it could be nearly a hundred."

"That's horrible," said Dan. Tom was surprised to see Dan looking at him with a troubled look on his face. "It's a horrible thing to do to someone," said Dan vaguely, before sighing and going back to his food.

"Yes, it's nasty," agreed Tom, puzzled at why Dan was so upset by it. He normally went on missions, locked up the bad guys and came back looking satisfied at a job well done. Tom had never seen an empathetic side to Dan, except where his friends were concerned. Maybe he had underestimated the guy. He had always assumed Dan just liked the thrill of being a spy. Maybe there was a bit more to it than that.

Keri cleared her plates. Dan ate over half his food before putting down his knife and fork and leaning back against his pillows.

"Still tired ?" asked Tom sympathetically. Dan just nodded, his eyelids drooping. Within seconds he was asleep again. "I guess Dan won't be going home just yet," Tom whispered to Keri. She smiled at him and shook her head.

"Was anyone hurt ?" Keri asked anxiously.

"Some minor injuries," said Tom. "Fortunately, Carrie and Oscar set an explosion off in a safe full of weapons and explosives so that the enemy wouldn't be able to use them against us."

"That's good," said Keri.

"Yeah, except that it was in the storage room with all the physical stuff from people who had been targeted by Perfect Match. All the paper records and artefacts were destroyed by the fire," said Tom. "All we've got now are the electronic records that Rose and I found. There are loads of people out there living out someone else's life. We might not know about them."

"You'll find them," said Keri confidently.

"You think ?" asked Tom.

"I know. You and Rose are the two cleverest people I know. I reckon the two of you will have it sewn up in no time," said Keri smiling at him. Tom blushed and smiled back.

Xxxxxxooooooooxxxxxxxx

Later in the afternoon Keri sat with Aneisha, Tom and Frank in MI9 HQ. "Dan will be mad if he wakes up and we've all gone," said Aneisha.

"He needs the rest. No alternative really," said Frank. He stood up and smiled as Rose, Carrie, Ilya and Oscar came into the room. They all hugged one another. "Thanks for taking care of them," said Frank.

"They don't need much taking care of Frank," said Carrie laughing. "Keri can kick ass."

"Tom is nearly as good as me on the computer," said Rose. She didn't see Carrie and Oscar rolling their eyes at the others. Aneisha and Keri covered their mouths to hide their grins.

"Aneisha is also very nearly as good as me undercover," said Ilya completely straight-faced. Everyone except Rose laughed. She looked puzzled by the hilarity.

"And Dan," said Oscar shaking his head.

"He did give up once he was unconscious," said Ilya. "If he could think of a way to keep fighting while unconscious, he probably would."

"So what happens next ?" asked Keri. "What's going to happen to Perfect Match ?"

"Well, nobody's talking," said Frank with a sigh. "Fortunately we think we have enough information from the data which Tom and Rose collected to track down all of the replacement criminals. There's going to be a joint international operation to locate these people, arrest them, and track down the funds these illegal activities have been collecting for Perfect Match. You guys will be helping with that," he said, nodding towards Rose, Oscar, Carrie and Ilya.

"Not us ?" asked Aneisha.

"No, you have other work to do," said Frank. "You're the only MI High team at the moment. The adult agents can deal with the clear-up from Perfect Match."

"I guess we'd better say bye then," said Rose walking up to Tom with her hand out. They shook hands. Carrie gave Tom, Aneisha and Keri a big hug. Oscar and Ilya gave the girls a hug and Tom a handshake before leaving.

"Right, time to go home everyone," said Frank, clapping his hands together.

"What about Dan ?" asked Keri.

"Don't worry about Dan. I'll see he's alright," promised Frank.

Xxxxxx000000000xxxxxxx

Dan woke to the sound of voices again. The light wasn't as bright. He looked across to Keri's bed and it was empty. Worried, he spotted his watch on the bedside cabinet. He checked and was shocked to find it was early evening. "No way ! I've been asleep all day !" he complained.

"Good," said Frank, appearing from the doorway, followed by Oscar. "You needed it. How's your leg ?" he asked.

Dan wiggled his leg experimentally. "Bit better," he reported. "Can I go now ?" he asked.

"Not up to me," said Frank shrugging. "Hungry ?" Dan nodded. He really was hungry this time. "I'll get some food organised," said Frank.

Oscar dropped into the chair beside the bed. "You've got a good line in chucking grenades from the bottom of a bin," said Oscar with a smile.

"Uh, lucky hit I think," said Dan.

"Nothing lucky about it," said Oscar. "You're a good team," he said.

"So are you," said Dan. "Carrie's a great fighter," he said admiringly.

Oscar smiled widely. "Yes. She's great in lots of ways," he said. Dan cocked an eyebrow at him and Oscar laughed. "Yeah maybe," he said, quite shyly. Dan didn't push it. Oscar was too much like him and he really liked the guy. Oscar stretched his legs out in front of him and folded his hands over his stomach. "You Okay ?" Oscar asked him.

"Yeah. My leg will be fine soon," said Dan.

"That's not what I meant," said Oscar. "It really bothered you didn't it ?" he asked gently.

Dan thought back to that room full of people's personal things in boxes. It made his toes curl thinking about the photos of the little girls and the jewellery in the box they had opened. It did bother him. He didn't know why it bothered him so much. "I don't know why," he said hesitantly. "It's usually Aneisha who thinks about things like that," he admitted. "I just get on with stuff, you know, trying to be professional. I guess I wasn't myself so much this time," he said apologetically.

"You don't need to apologise Dan," said Oscar. "You have to be a human being as well as a professional in this job. The instant you stop being a human being, that's when you become a rotten agent. That's when you turn into the thing you're fighting against." He paused, and Dan thought about what Oscar had said. "You care," said Oscar gently, "and that's what makes you a great agent." Dan looked at him in astonishment. "Well, that and the ability to chuck grenades accurately when semi-conscious," said Oscar thoughtfully. They were both laughing when Frank came back in with more food.

"How hungry are you ?" asked Frank.

"Ravenous," said Dan.

"Good ! I guessed correctly," said Frank, putting down a tray piled high with different foods. "Enjoy !"

**THE END**

**Hope you liked it. Please read and review. Tell me what you thought. I'll decide if I want to do another or not.**


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